Immu-Mela: An open resource for exploring immunotherapy-related multidimensional genomic profiles in melanoma

J Genet Genomics. 2021 May 20;48(5):361-368. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2021.03.016. Epub 2021 May 14.

Abstract

There are increasing studies aimed to reveal genomic hallmarks predictive of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) treatment response, which generated a large number of data and provided an unprecedented opportunity to identify response-related features and evaluate their robustness across cohorts. However, those valuable data sets are not easily accessible to the research community. To take full advantage of existing large-scale immuno-genomic profiles, we developed Immu-Mela (http://bioinfo.vanderbilt.edu/database/Immu-Mela/), a multidimensional immuno-genomic portal that provides interactive exploration of associations between ICB responsiveness and multi-omics features in melanoma, including genetic, transcriptomics, immune cells, and single-cell populations. Immu-Mela also enables integrative analysis of any two genomic features. We demonstrated the value of Immu-Mela by identifying known and novel genomic features associated with ICB response. In addition, Immu-Mela allows users to upload their data sets (unrestricted to any cancer types) and co-analyze with existing data to identify and validate signatures of interest. Immu-Mela reduces barriers between researchers and complex genomic data, facilitating discoveries in cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: Biomarker; CTLA-4 blockade; Immune checkpoint; Immunotherapy; Melanoma; Multidimensional genomics; PD-1/PD-L1 blockade.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Databases, Genetic*
  • Disease Susceptibility
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Genomics / methods*
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy / adverse effects
  • Immunotherapy / methods*
  • Melanoma / etiology*
  • Melanoma / therapy*
  • Software*
  • Transcriptome*
  • Web Browser

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor