Towards interoperable and reproducible QSAR analyses : Exchange of data sets

• BACKGROUND: QSAR/QSPR is a widely used method to relate chemical structures and responses based on ex- perimental observations. In QSAR, chemical structures are expressed as descriptors, which are mathematical representations like calculated properties or enumerated fragments. Many existing QSAR data sets are based on a combination of different software tools mixed with in-house developed solutions, with datasets manually assembled in spreadsheets. Currently there exists no agreed-upon definition of descriptors and no standard for exchanging data sets in QSAR, which together with numerous different descriptor implementations makes it a virtually impossible task to reproduce and validate analyses, and significantly hinders collaborations and re-use of data.RESULTS: We present a step towards standardizing QSAR analyses by defining interoperable and reproducible QSAR/QSPR data sets, comprising an open XML format (QSAR-ML) and an open extensible descriptor ontology (Blue Obelisk Descriptor Ontology). The ontology provides an extensible way of uniquely defining descriptors for use in QSAR experiments, and the exchange format supports multiple versioned implementations of these descriptors. Hence, a data set described by QSAR-ML makes its setup completely reproducible. We also provide an implementation as a set of plugins for Bioclipse that simplifies QSAR data set formation, and allows for exporting in QSAR-ML as well as traditional CSV formats. The implementation facilitates addition of new descriptor implementations, from locally installed software and remote Web services; the latter is demonstrated with REST and XMPP Web services.CONCLUSIONS: Standardized QSAR data sets opens up new ways to store, query, and exchange data for subsequent analyses. QSAR-ML supports completely reproducible dataset formation, solving the problems of defining which software components were used, their versions, and the case of multiple names for the same descriptor. This makes is easy to join, extend, combine data sets and also to work collectively. The presented Bioclipse plugins equip scientists with intuitive tools that make QSAR-ML widely available for the community.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Bioinformatik och systembiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

QSAR

Bioclipse

standard

ontology

life sciences

bioinformatics

cheminformatics

reproducible

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatik

Bioinformatik

Bioinformatics

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