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National Human Genome Research Institute continues support of PhenX Toolkit with new 5-year grant
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has awarded RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, a five-year grant to establish the existing PhenX Toolkit as a biomedical knowledgebase. The grant will fund the continued review and expansion of PhenX Toolkit content and increase awareness and adoption of the toolkit as a freely available catalog of measurement protocols recommended for use in studies with human participants.
With continuous funding since 2007, the goal of the RTI-led PhenX (consensus measures for Phenotypes and eXposures) project is to provide investigators with standard measurement protocols for use in genomic, epidemiologic, clinical, and translational research. Investigators who include PhenX protocols in their studies report finding it is easier to collaborate and share data with other investigators who have also used PhenX protocols for data collection, thus increasing the impact of individual studies.
Working groups of experts use standard criteria and a well-established consensus process to decide which protocols to include in the PhenX Toolkit. Protocols in the PhenX Toolkit are recommended for use and are suitable for a variety of study designs.
The grant is part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort to support accessible and well-maintained data resources to expand data knowledge and discovery, which can lead to improvements in patient care, health outcomes, and quality of life. PhenX is a model for sustainable, community-driven resources that are freely available for implementation across studies. Establishing the PhenX Toolkit as a biomedical knowledgebase will help ensure that PhenX continues to meet the needs of the scientific community, promote FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles, and support NIH data management and sharing initiatives.
In addition to funding from NHGRI, co-funding for the award is provided by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the Office of the Director (OD), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Other NIH institutes, offices and centers that have provided funding are the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Tobacco Regulatory Science Program (TRSP).
This work is supported by NIH under award number U24HG012556.
