Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnologies, National Research Council (CNR), Via Giovanni Amendola 122/O, 70126, Bari, Italy.
National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Section of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70126, Bari, Italy.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2021 Nov 8;22(Suppl 15):544. doi: 10.1186/s12859-021-04401-3.
Improving the availability and usability of data and analytical tools is a critical precondition for further advancing modern biological and biomedical research. For instance, one of the many ramifications of the COVID-19 global pandemic has been to make even more evident the importance of having bioinformatics tools and data readily actionable by researchers through convenient access points and supported by adequate IT infrastructures. One of the most successful efforts in improving the availability and usability of bioinformatics tools and data is represented by the Galaxy workflow manager and its thriving community. In 2020 we introduced Laniakea, a software platform conceived to streamline the configuration and deployment of "on-demand" Galaxy instances over the cloud. By facilitating the set-up and configuration of Galaxy web servers, Laniakea provides researchers with a powerful and highly customisable platform for executing complex bioinformatics analyses. The system can be accessed through a dedicated and user-friendly web interface that allows the Galaxy web server's initial configuration and deployment.
"Laniakea@ReCaS", the first instance of a Laniakea-based service, is managed by ELIXIR-IT and was officially launched in February 2020, after about one year of development and testing that involved several users. Researchers can request access to Laniakea@ReCaS through an open-ended call for use-cases. Ten project proposals have been accepted since then, totalling 18 Galaxy on-demand virtual servers that employ ~ 100 CPUs, ~ 250 GB of RAM and ~ 5 TB of storage and serve several different communities and purposes. Herein, we present eight use cases demonstrating the versatility of the platform.
During this first year of activity, the Laniakea-based service emerged as a flexible platform that facilitated the rapid development of bioinformatics tools, the efficient delivery of training activities, and the provision of public bioinformatics services in different settings, including food safety and clinical research. Laniakea@ReCaS provides a proof of concept of how enabling access to appropriate, reliable IT resources and ready-to-use bioinformatics tools can considerably streamline researchers' work.
提高数据和分析工具的可用性和易用性是进一步推进现代生物和生物医学研究的关键前提。例如，COVID-19 全球大流行的众多结果之一是，使研究人员更容易通过便捷的访问点获得生物信息学工具和数据，并通过充足的 IT 基础设施支持，使这些工具和数据更具可操作性。提高生物信息学工具和数据的可用性和易用性的最成功的努力之一是 Galaxy 工作流管理器及其蓬勃发展的社区。2020 年，我们引入了 Laniakea，这是一个软件平台，旨在简化通过云配置和部署“按需”Galaxy 实例。通过促进 Galaxy 网络服务器的设置和配置，Laniakea 为研究人员提供了一个强大且高度可定制的平台，用于执行复杂的生物信息学分析。该系统可通过专用且用户友好的网络界面访问，该界面允许对 Galaxy 网络服务器进行初始配置和部署。
“Laniakea@ReCaS”是基于 Laniakea 的服务的第一个实例，由 ELIXIR-IT 管理，并于 2020 年 2 月正式推出，此前经过大约一年的开发和测试，涉及到几个用户。研究人员可以通过开放式使用案例请求访问 Laniakea@ReCaS。自那时以来，已经接受了十个项目提案，总计 18 个 Galaxy 按需虚拟服务器，使用了大约 100 个 CPU、250GB 的 RAM 和 5TB 的存储，并为多个不同的社区和用途提供服务。在此，我们展示了八个用例，展示了该平台的多功能性。
在第一年的活动中，基于 Laniakea 的服务已成为一个灵活的平台，便于快速开发生物信息学工具、高效交付培训活动，并在不同环境中提供公共生物信息学服务，包括食品安全和临床研究。Laniakea@ReCaS 提供了一个概念验证，即如何使研究人员能够访问适当、可靠的 IT 资源和即用型生物信息学工具，可以极大地简化他们的工作。
