What is Terra?

Terra is a collaborative cloud-based application co-developed by The Broad Institute, Verily, and Microsoft (1). It is designed specifically for biomedical and genomic science, allowing researchers to access vast data repositories, run strong workflows, and collaborate with other researchers globally, all within the cloud. To do this, Terra relies on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to be able to provide high-level computing, sufficient storage, and global access to the platform (2).

terra googlecloud

Key Features of Terra

Intergrated Data Repositories Users can work directly with large public genomic datasets, such as those from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (3), TOPMed (4), and gnomAD (5).

Reproducible Pipelines Terra supports Workflow Description Language (WDL) pipelines and Jupyter Notebooks, making it easy for researchers to reproduce and share analyses from other collaborators.

Security and Compliance Terra complies with HIPAA and other healthcare data security regulations, which is essential for handling patient-derived genomic data. This ensures that all data that enters the cloud-based application is securely stored, accessed, and processed with strict privacy.

Why is Terra Important?

Facilitates Collaboration Through providing shared spaces for researchers, they are able to co-develop analyses and share results from anywhere in the world, providing greater insights from different global perspectives. Additionally, it encourages collaboration between institutions and research groups worldwide, furthering scientific knowledge.

Integrates Public Datasets Terra offers direct access to TCGA, TOPMed, and gnomAD, eliminating the need to download and store large files, making them all accesible in the same area.

Enables Robust Genomic Research Terra supports the analysis of massive genomic datasets that would be impractical to handle on local infrastructure. This challenge is curbed by their leverage of Google Cloud’s computing power to run complex workflows efficiently.

Exploring Terra

If you are interested in contributing to Terra or would simply like to explore the tools, datasets, and collaborative workspaces through their platform, visit terra.bio

References

  1. Broad Institute. Terra: A platform for biomedical data analysis and collaboration. https://terra.bio/

  2. Google Cloud. (2020). Google Cloud for Life Sciences: Accelerate life sciences research and innovation. Google. https://cloud.google.com/solutions/life-sciences

  3. National Cancer Institute. The Cancer Genome Atlas Program. https://www.cancer.gov/ccg/research/genome-sequencing/tcga

  4. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. TOPMed: Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine. https://topmed.nhlbi.nih.gov/

  5. Broad Institute. gnomAD: Genome Aggregation Database. https://gnomad.broadinstitute.org/