The Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal (CCKP) aims to be the one-stop shop for discovering cancer-related research datasets hosted on various data and tool repositories, including Synapse.org. It provides a user-friendly web interface to search and find data of different modalities, software tools, and educational resources generated by researchers from multiple research centers. We are now extending the capabilities of the CCKP to allow both experimental and computational researchers to search and download resources related to cancer research more easily. 

Researchers focused on finding cures for cancer are working hard towards testing hypotheses to understand the underlying mechanism of the disease and its resistance to therapy. To support these activities, they often rely on previously published literature or data to generate hypotheses by either reanalyzing previously available data or augmenting their analyses with publicly available datasets and software tools. To perform both of these activities they need to search, find, and then use computational analyses to re-analyze the data. The CCKP facilitates the search and find functionalities, but we realized that they need to be more user friendly to reach their full potential. We have simplified your user experience by adding a central search button right on the home page that enables quick searches for users with specific key search terms in mind. We have also made it easier to cite data and publications that helped your work right from the Portal. Finally, for datasets that are shared specifically on Synapse.org, we have made it easier than ever to download the data right from the Portal. Come to the CCKP homepage and: 

  • Click the “search” button using search terms of your choice to find any resource surfaced on CCKP. 
  • Check out the “cite as” button for quick citations to datasets and publications that have helped your research. 
  • Trying to find other resources similar to your dataset? Click on the “visual icons” on the dataset card to find other resources with similar data or computational tools. 
  • Found what you were looking for? Click the “download” button or the “external link” to request access to the data you need.
“I felt the new Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal design with the search bar on top (with examples) enhances accessibility to information. Browsing different sections using the “Explore…” links from the homepage is intuitive and effective, especially with the helpful filters provided. The ability to view grants in the search results is particularly unique and valuable, as is the inclusion of direct links to GitHub and other repositories on the tools page. It’s also a major advantage that users can retrieve data without needing to sign in to Synapse.*” – Aritro Nath, City of Hope

The improvements won’t stop here. Since some datasets that are currently findable through the CCKP are on different data repositories, the CCKP has traditionally routed folks to the external platform and relied on their navigation for download. We aim to collaborate with the external repositories to extend the “download” button functionality and enable a seamless download experience. 

At the MC2 Center, our mission—through the CCKP—is to empower researchers and citizen scientists by making it easier to discover and access the data, tools, and publications they need to drive scientific discovery. With this latest release, we’ve responded directly to feedback from the research community. By closely studying how scientists and non-scientists engage with the portal, we’ve introduced new features designed to streamline their workflows and make their search for resources more intuitive and efficient. The “search” feature and the “cite as” feature are my favorites, check them out and let us know how you feel. – Jineta Banerjee, Principal Investigator for the MC2 Center and Associate Director, Advanced Data Analytics

Our focus at the MC2 Center is to help make valuable existing cancer research data and resources more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The latest updates to CCKP are a step forward in that mission—streamlining how researchers and people with lived experience of cancer discover, access, and integrate high-value resources to understand the disease. – Susheel Varma, Principal Investigator for the MC2 Center and Chief Data Officer, Science and Data

*Users are prompted to sign in to the Portal using their Synapse username to use the download cart feature of CCKP.