MIACA – Minimum Information About a Cellular Assay: Standardized description of cell-based functional assay projects

Recent advances and developments in genomics and functional genomics have enabled large scale analysis of gene and protein function by means of high throughput cell biology analysis. Cells are often perturbed in vitro and induced effects are recorded and analyzed. Perturbations can be triggered in several ways, for instance with molecules (siRNA, expression construct, small chemical compound,...) or with other stresses cells are subjected to (temperature shift, serum starvation, ...). The cellular responses to such perturbations are analyzed in order to identify players in the biological processes addressed and to understand biological principles. Often such analyses are carried out in high-throughput, and a huge amount of data is collected. Given the availability of such data sources there is a growing need to compare and integrate such data that originate from different, however often complementary approaches, and to elucidate higher order principles. These processes are the basis of Systems Biology. Minimum information on the rationale, materials, the conditions prior to, during, and after the perturbation, as well as all experimental processes need to be recorded and documented in order to fully describe the set-up and progress of a cellular assay project, and to be able to understand and follow the data analysis and knowledge generation processes. Only then an efficient integration of data is possible. Standardized nomenclatures/ontologies and data models should be employed wherever possible. In conjunction, this allows researchers to independently evaluate the results and conclusions obtained from such assays, and is prerequisite for the establishment of repositories (databases) that take and disseminate data from cellular assays. MIACA is neither intended to become such a data repository nor does it intend to prescribe the experimental layout of cellular assays. Instead, “merely” the minimum reporting requirements that are supposed to annotate the data from such assays shall be defined. Since the level of detail depends on the target (i.e., journal, database, LIMS system – with increasing amount of information), not all the terms named in this document will be relevant to all these targets, and the checklist indicates the SHALL, SHOULD, MAY terms. This draft shall make public the MIACA Standards Initiative, and attract experts in the fields to contribute and actively participate in the MIACA standard development process.