Chemosensitivity assays are commonly used for preclinical drug discovery and clinical trial optimization. However, data from independent assays are often discordant, largely attributed to uncharacterized variation in the experimental materials and protocols. We report here the launching of MICHA (Minimal Information for Chemosensitivity Assays), accessed via https://micha-protocol.org. Distinguished from existing efforts that are often lacking support from data integration tools, MICHA can automatically extract publicly available information to facilitate the assay annotation including: 1) compounds, 2) samples, 3) reagents, and 4) data processing methods. For example, MICHA provides an integrative web server and database to obtain compound annotation including chemical structures, targets, and disease indications. In addition, the annotation of cell line samples, assay protocols and literature references can be greatly eased by retrieving manually curated catalogues. Once the annotation is complete, MICHA can export a report that conforms to the FAIR principle (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) of drug screening studies. To consolidate the utility of MICHA, we provide FAIRified protocols from five major cancer drug screening studies, as well as six recently conducted COVID-19 studies. With the MICHA webserver and database, we envisage a wider adoption of a community-driven effort to improve the open access of drug sensitivity assays.

Biotech Research and Innovation Centre University of Copenhagen Denmark

European infrastructure for translational medicine

Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology Hamburg Germany

Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland University of Helsinki Finland

Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine Czech

Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS Italy

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences U S A

Research Program in Systems Oncology Faculty of medicine University of Helsinki Finland

Brief Bioinform. 2022 Jan 17;23(1):bbab350. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbab350. PubMed

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