Researchers can now explore human atherosclerosis data without needing access to individual patient data. With AtheroPortal, UMC Utrecht introduces a platform that makes large-scale human plaque data easier to explore, while keeping sensitive patient information fully protected.
Atherosclerosis is a slowly progressing disease that often shows no symptoms but can suddenly lead to a heart attack or stroke. “Understanding the disease and developing treatments remains challenging,” says Sander van der Laan, assistant professor at UMC Utrecht. “This is because models do not fully reflect the human situation.” Researchers therefore often rely on human tissue.
“That is why we built Athero-Express,” Van der Laan explains. “This is one of the largest biobanks of human atherosclerotic plaques worldwide.” Each plaque is linked to patient data, tissue analysis and molecular data.
At the same time, access is not straightforward. There is a formal, legally governed procedure to request data or samples. “That takes time and effort,” Van der Laan says. “And in many cases, sharing individual-level data is simply not allowed.”
“That does not fully match how we want to work at UMC Utrecht,” he adds. “We aim to share knowledge and data more openly, in line with FAIR principles of Open Science.”
Researchers of the UMC Utrecht therefore created AtheroPortal; a platform that brings together plaque characteristics, clinical data and analysis results in one place. At the same time, the platform safeguards patient privacy by only providing aggregated results. “This creates a portal that is openly accessible, while individual patient data always remains protected,” Van der Laan explains.
Users can search for a gene or target and directly see how it relates to plaque features and clinical outcomes. “This helps researchers interpret findings from cell and animal models using real human data.”
AtheroPortal also makes complex data easier to explore. Users can interact with datasets, visualizations and results, and link findings directly to underlying data. “This improves transparency and reproducibility, makes collaboration easier, and lowers the barrier for researchers without advanced data analysis skills.”
The platform will continue to grow with new datasets, tools and publications. “For researchers translating findings to human disease, this really speeds things up. AtheroPortal therefore offers a fast, structured way to test hypotheses in human plaque data, without starting from scratch,” Van der Laan concludes.
Academic researchers can request access by registering, providing information about their background and intended use, and submitting supporting credentials. Once approved, they can access the summary-level results within the portal.
Researchers from commercial organisations cannot use the standard route. Access is only possible through a public-private partnership with AtheroScreen and is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
In all cases, individual patient data are never shared. Protecting the privacy of patients who contributed their data and samples remains essential.
