Data Access

Similar to MG-RAST and EBI-Metagenomics, all the information on a project tagged public, such as raw read files, processed files, description files, and visualization tables, are freely available through MetaStorm. From the home page, the user can access descriptions of all the recently listed (public) projects and the reference databases that other users submitted. A search tool is available for users to identify potential sets of reference sequences that can match their analysis. MetaStorm’s reference sharing capability aims to support 1) the focus of knowledge based on user runs and 2) the projected run time for reporting MetaStorm results. Expectedly, small customized databases will report results faster than full reference databases. A novice user can use this database for analysis and jump to the specific biological problem, thus saving the computing time. Moreover, the search tool enables users to find similar existing metagenome samples in MetaStorm (public ones) and include them for more comprehensive comparison studies. Comparison across different samples is made feasible by the normalization criteria implemented in MetaStorm. Finally, all the raw and generated files for the metagenomic analysis can be downloaded in a variety of formats by clicking on the download button of each section in the visualization page.