FAQ

How do I request a new organism, assembly, or workflow?

Email help@brc-analytics.org with as much detail as possible (NCBI accessions, workflow name, desired analysis, etc.). That inbox is the fastest way to reach the team that curates the catalog and workflows, and we triage additions directly from there.

What analyses are available today?

BRC Analytics currently ships a curated set of Galaxy workflows. Highlights include:

  • Viral variant calling (generic non-segmented viruses, poxvirus amplicon, COVID-19 ARTIC and WGS pipelines)
  • RNA-seq expression analyses (single-end and paired-end)
  • Chromatin accessibility and regulation workflows (ATAC-seq, CUT&RUN/CUT&Tag, ChIP-seq, consensus peak calling)
  • AMR gene detection from assembled genomes
  • lncRNA annotation workflow

Each workflow page in the UI lists the required inputs; assemblies, indices (BWA, Bowtie2, etc.), and RefSeq/VEuPathDB annotations are pre-provisioned when available so you can focus on selecting reads or uploading your own data.

What if I need something different?

Many users launch a workflow from BRC Analytics and then continue custom analyses directly inside Galaxy. You can always:

  1. Launch the closest matching workflow from BRC Analytics.
  2. Once you land in Galaxy, open the resulting history, rerun tools with different parameters, or chain additional steps.
  3. If the workflow itself needs to change, email help@brc-analytics.org explaining the gap—we prioritize updates based on those requests.

What features are coming next?

The Analysis Assistant has since shipped and is in beta. Its own page covers what it can do, which model is answering you, and what happens to your messages.

We are actively developing support for:

  • Comparative Genomics & Pangenomics: Analyze variation across multiple strains or species.
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions: Integrated workflows for dual-organism analysis.
  • Genome Assembly: De novo assembly pipelines for various sequencing technologies.

Check our Roadmap for the latest status, or email us if you have a specific use case you'd like to see prioritized.

Is BRC Analytics free to use?

Yes. BRC Analytics is funded by NIAID and provides free computational resources to the research community. There are no fees for accessing the platform, running workflows, or storing data within standard allocation limits.

Do I need an account?

You can browse the site without an account, but you will need a free UseGalaxy.org account to run analyses. This account allows you to track your jobs, save your history, and manage your data securely.

How do BRC Analytics and Galaxy split responsibilities?

  • BRC Analytics (this site) is where you browse organisms, pick assemblies, choose workflows, and configure parameters.
  • Galaxy (UseGalaxy.org) is where every job executes. When BRC Analytics hands off a workflow you will see it in your current Galaxy session/history, and you can switch histories or rerun tools once you arrive there.

How can I contribute?

We aspire to be a community-driven platform and welcome your involvement! BRC Analytics is built on open-source software, and there are several ways to contribute:

  • Join the conversation: Come say hello in our Matrix chat channel to discuss ideas, suggest new assemblies, or share feature requests.
  • Submit workflows: All our workflows are sourced from the Intergalactic Workflow Commission (IWC). If you have a workflow you'd like to see integrated, contributing it to the IWC is the most effective way to get it added.
  • Contribute to Galaxy: We rely heavily on the Galaxy Project ecosystem. Contributing tool wrappers, bug fixes, or features to the core project directly improves BRC Analytics.

Still have questions?