(Use Case: Breast Cancer University Research Study)

Owned by Charlotte Reynolds
Last updated: Nov 26, 2021
2 min read

Scenario:

A university research team is investigating whether breast cancer can be detected early in adults by identifying certain markers in the blood.

Solution:

  • The Browser: a public facing data browser that allows researchers to discover and request access to datasets.

Features:

  • Search for datasets.

  • Filter search results (by Publisher, Data Use Limitation, Data Use Requirements, Keywords, Physical Sample Availability, Geographic Coverage).

  • Browse dataset metadata.

  • Request access to datasets.

Tutorial:

  1. To begin, open the Browser.

 

2. As we are looking for breast cancer related datasets, we will start by entering the keywords “breast cancer” in the search bar.

 

3. The search results show there are 8 datasets which match these keywords.

 

4. Our research project requires access to blood samples. Use the Physical Sample Availability filter to find datasets with physical samples by selecting “WHOLE BLOOD”, “PLASMA” and “PERIPHERAL BLOOD CELLS”.

 

5. There are two datasets that meet these requirements. We can click through to view further information on each dataset.

 

6. We can now browse the various metadata categories to see if this dataset is suitable for our project.

 

7. We can see from the Description that the dataset has “blood samples from patients with early stage breast cancer” - which could be very useful for our research project.

 

8. In the Coverage section, we can see that the Typical Age Range is 40-150, which fits our requirement for adult subjects.

 

Next Steps: