DCP Platform Updates

December 11, 2020

DCP 2.0 launches; new projects, contributor generated matrices and DCP 2.0 infrastructure

In the spirit of bringing HCA data to the community as quickly as possible, we are releasing the new DCP 2.0 data and infrastructure incrementally.

This initial launch -- the first of several planned to roll out new functionality, pipelines, and data -- includes:

• Raw data and standardized metadata for 5.8 million cells
• Contributor-generated matrices, embeddings, and annotations for existing and 16 new DCP projects
• New DCP 2.0 infrastructure (details below)

What’s included in the new projects?

The new projects include a mix of human and mouse data from a variety of organs including adipose tissue, heart, hindlimb, spleen skin, yolk sac, diaphragm, tongue, trachea and more. These data encompass:

• 143 donors
• 248 specimens
• estimated 1.3M additional cells

View the new projects using the DCP 2.0 Data Preview

What’s included in the DCP 2.0 infrastructure updates?

Along with the new data view we have updated DCP infrastructure by retiring and replacing the following features:

• HCA Command Line Interface (CLI); data are now downloaded using curl commands (see the Accessing HCA Data and Metadata guide)
• HCA Matrix Service; DCP 1.0 project matrices remain available on the individual Project Matrices page (see the Exploring Projects guide)
• HCA Data Storage Service (DSS) and API; data is now stored in the Terra Data Repo (TDR), an alternative storage and metadata management service that supports managed access

What’s Coming Next?

Between now and the end of February look for:

• Standardized analysis results (BAM and index files) made by the latest HCA 10x and SmartSeq-2 pipelines for all projects
• DCP-generated count matrices stratified by species, library construction method, and organ for each project

After these standardized analyses are complete, we will begin releasing new projects and analysis on a monthly basis. We are also working towards incorporating controlled-access projects.

Once processing is complete, we will retire DCP 1.0 View.

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October 9, 2020

Coming Soon - DCP 2.0

We are excited to announce the launch of the DCP 2.0 this fall. This has been a collaborative effort over the past 6 months to take on board the HCA community feedback and understand the unmet needs in order to align the goals of the DCP with the wider HCA community goals.

We have made significant changes, including GA4GH-compliance, more data—50% more than previously—and, where available, contributor-generated count matrices, embeddings, and cell type annotations.

Changes Coming to Key Components

To accomplish this, we will be making the following changes and migrations:

• The current Data Storage Service (DSS) will be retired and we will migrate to the Terra Data Repo, which supports managed access, for storage and metadata management. Both Ingest and the Data Browser will access the Terra Data Repo via self-service APIs, making for minimal disruption to the HCA scientific community.
• The matrix service API will be retired. The per-project matrices that are most commonly used will be available in static form directly from the data browser.
• As a higher-level replacement for the DSS API, the Data Browser API is being prepared for use by the wider developer community and will be officially documented and supported by the HCA DCP team.
• The HCA-CLI will be retired and the Data Browser will provide a bulk download capability via curl (or similar) commands. Because the internal organization of the data store is subject to change with upcoming work on the metadata, direct calls against it are discouraged in favor of the new Data Browser API.

Transition Path to DCP 2.0

More information about the transition to DCP 2.0 will be announced in the coming weeks and we will endeavour to make this transition as seamless as possible to the HCA research and developer communities.

To enable a smooth transition, the DCP 1 data browser, APIs and data will remain available until January 1, 2021.

We will continue to integrate third party portals and applications into the HCA ecosystem by linking from and integrating directly into the HCA Data Browser.

Regards,

The HCA DCP Team