The Northwestern University Neuroimaging Data Archive (NUNDA)

Abstract

The Northwestern University Neuroimaging Data Archive (NUNDA), an XNAT-powered data archiving system, aims to facilitate secure data storage; centralized data management; automated, standardized data processing; and simple, intuitive data sharing. NUNDA is a federated data archive, wherein individual project owners regulate access to their data. NUNDA supports multiple methods of data import, enabling data collection in a central repository. Data in NUNDA are available by project to any authorized user, allowing coordinated data management and review across sites. With NUNDA pipelines, users capitalize on existing procedures or standardize custom routines for consistent, automated data processing. NUNDA can be integrated with other research databases to simplify data exploration and discovery. And data on NUNDA can be confidently shared for secure collaboration.

Keywords: Data processing and analysis; Data sharing; Data storage; Neuroinformatics; XNAT.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1. Data stored in NUNDA

Currently, NUNDA supports 131 projects, 4,783 subjects, 7,972 imaging sessions, and 79,187 scans. New data are uploaded daily. Supplement 1 includes a full breakdown of project, subject, session, and scan counts by project.

Figure 2. The NUNDA research workflow, adapted from (Marcus et al., 2007a)

The NUNDA research workflow begins with data acquisition and archiving, which brings data into NUNDA. Once a part of the NUNDA archive, data can be processed and analyzed, shared with collaborators, integrated with non-imaging data, and downloaded for local use.

Figure 3. The NUNDA-QUEST Connection

NUNDA pipelines run on Quest, Northwestern University’s high performance computing cluster (http://www.it.northwestern.edu/research/user-services/quest/index.html). A scheduler script on the NUNDA server copies the NUNDA-generated parameter file onto Quest and submits the pipeline job to the Quest PBS. Once running, the pipeline uses the XNAT REST API to download raw data from NUNDA onto Quest and to upload processed data uploaded from Quest back to NUNDA. The XNAT Pipeline Engine, installed on Quest, monitors the progress of the pipeline and updates the pipeline status on web portal as each step completes.

Figure 4. Growth of data stored in NUNDA since inception in 2009

NUNDA has been steadily growing since its inception in 2009. Currently, NUNDA supports 131 projects, 4,783 subjects, and 7,972 imaging sessions.

Figure 5. NUNDA Analytics

In the past year, approximately 75 imaging sessions have been archived each week, and an average of 20 users access NUNDA each day.