Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome-Database of Genes (ARDS-DB)

To better understand the gene level associations that are most relevant to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), a comprehensive resource is needed.  There’s currently no freely available database dedicated to ARDS that provides comprehensive gene lists from experimentally verifiable studies, gene function, gene location, and additional metadata for tracking related link out resources.  The need for such a database is only accentuated by the steep rise in ARDS cases due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, in which infected patients admitted to the ICU develop ARDS at a rate of 67% to 85%, calling for an increase into ARDS research. 

Our goal was to develop such a resource for use by the scientific community to enhance our studies of ARDS and associated genes.  Our first step was to perform data mining and curation of scientific literature through a robust review process.  Subsequent steps enabled us to refine our data by capturing specific metadata and incorporating these into our database.  The version 1 of the database will provide users with access to the database flat file with current genes, gene location, chromosomal information, and more in a freely accessible and downloadable format. Future project goals are to develop a standalone web portal that will integrate the gene level information with network analysis, and other visualizations for users.