June 15, 2018 (Vol. 38, No. 12)
URL:
http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cosmic
Rating:
Strong Points: Incredible amount of data, nicely organized site
Weak Points: None
Summary:
COSMIC—the Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute—is an incredibly rich resource for cancer biologists and medical professionals. (In fact, as the website boasts, COSMIC is the “world’s largest and most comprehensive resource” on somatic mutations in human cancers.) COSMIC itself is comprised of several projects. There is a curated database of somatic mutations (COSMIC), genetic information for over 1000 cancer cell lines (Cell Lines Projects), a 3D browser to analyze genetic mutations in the context of 3D protein structures (COSMIC-3D), and a catalog of causally linked oncogenes (Cancer Gene Census). The nicely organized COSMIC website includes tools for the visualization of genetic data and genomic analyses, a news feed, and a wealth of data that are all free to download. The site houses a good amount of documentation to help researchers navigate the site.
