We have created an online helpdesk that will enable us to respond to queries, prioritise jobs and track who is working on which projects. These will be linked to collaboration documents. Some of the researchers that have been supported to date include: 1) a collaboration with Anastasia Koch and Terry Kipkorir to identify deletions in a bacterial gene using NGS data. This highlighted a need for a tool to automate the detection of deletions in large datasets, an initial version of which is now complete; 2) Jon Ambler attended the Dragen hackathon and platform collaboration, where he tested the Dragen platform and began arranging access to the Dragen platform in exchange for help in the development of tools; 3) Jon is assisting with arrangement of the venue, and organising access to the UCT cluster with the required tools for an RNA-sequencing training course that is being run by CIDRI-Africa and the Francis Crick institute.
On the clinical informatics side, we have created the ability to grant researchers access to routine data through an integrated viewing platform for study patients who have provided consent for data access. Future work will create a workflow for adding patients to this mechanism from within the RedCap system, and the appointment of a dedicated data manager for supporting data requests from the research enterprise.