Kids First studies overview and access

The goal of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program (Kids First) is to develop a large-scale data resource to help researchers uncover new insights into the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects, including the discovery of shared genetic pathways between these disorders.

Children with birth defects have an increased risk of developing childhood cancer. This suggests there are shared genetic pathways underlying some types of childhood cancer and structural birth defects. Kids First is achieving this goal through two initiatives:

  1. identifying children with childhood cancer and structural birth defects and their families for whole genome sequencing performed by the Kids First sequencing centers

  2. the Gabriella Miller Kids First Data Resource. Analyzing genetic sequence data from children with childhood cancer and structural birth defects together may lead to the discovery of new genetic pathways.

The program was launched in 2015. Over 2015-2018, the program selected 26 patient cohorts for whole genome sequencing through a peer-review process and will be selecting additional cohorts in 2019-2022 pending the availability of funds. To date, the program has sequenced more than 20,000 samples from childhood cancer and structural birth defects cohorts. The data from available studies consist of genomic sequencing and phenotype data from participants. Study participants are de-identified pediatric patients and their families (mother, father, brother, sister, etc) who consented to allowing their data to be contributed to the study.
Because the data comes from different sequencing centers with their workflows, we re-process the files to create a harmonized view of the data, which, in turn, creates more files; this is why users will see multiple files associated with a sample.

RE_ value present release identifier from Kids First DRC part. Every release contains changes in one or more studies compared to the previous release.

CAVATICA allows you to use Kids First Studies in your analysis. To start using the studies, access the Data Browser.