The Galaxy platform for accessible, reproducible and collaborative biomedical analyses: 2020 update

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics
• Computational Biology
• Scientific Computing

Background:

• Galaxy is a widely-used web-based computational workbench facilitating large-scale biomedical data analysis.
• The Galaxy project promotes accessible, reproducible, and collaborative research through a global community.
• The platform has seen significant growth in community contributions, tool integration, user base, and training materials over the past two years.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight recent advancements and community growth within the Galaxy project.
• To showcase enhancements in user interface, framework extensions, and community resources.
• To underscore Galaxy's role in advancing accessible and collaborative scientific research.

Main Methods:

• Community-driven development of the Galaxy software framework.
• Integration of diverse analysis tools and visualization capabilities.
• Deployment of public Galaxy servers and development of training materials.

Main Results:

• Significant growth in code contributions, integrated tools, user numbers, and training resources.
• User interface enhancements for analyzing large dataset collections and interactive exploratory data analysis.
• Framework extensions including federated identity management and distributed job execution.
• Expansion of community resources with new public servers and growing Galaxy Training Network.

Conclusions:

• The Galaxy project continues to expand, enhancing its capabilities for biomedical data analysis.
• Community collaboration is key to the platform's ongoing development and accessibility.
• Galaxy remains a vital tool for promoting reproducible and collaborative scientific research worldwide.