Centralizing neurofibromatosis experimental tool knowledge with the NF Research Tools Database

Experimental tools and resources, such as animal models, cell lines, antibodies, genetic reagents, or biobanks are key ingredients in biomedical research. In our work with the NF research community, we’ve observed that investigators face multiple challenges when trying to understand the availability, applicability, and accessibility of these tools, including keeping up with current information about the tools available for a particular research problem among large numbers of tools. A variety of projects such as the Mouse Genome Informatics database or the Resource Identification Initiative integrate information for a number of types of research tools. Typically, these resources are disease-agnostic, and curate a considerable amount of information about research tools. Here, we describe our efforts to build upon these resources by using them to develop a disease-specific research tools resource for the neurofibromatosis research community. This resource, the Neurofibromatosis Research Tools Database, is an open-access database that allows the community to find and explore information about neurofibromatosis type 1-relevant animal models, cell lines, antibodies, genetic reagents, or biobanks. Users can search and explore tools, obtain detailed information about specific types of tools, and read & contribute their observations about the performance, reliability, and characteristics of tools in the database. We anticipate that the NF Research Tools Database will be a helpful resource for NF researchers by promoting tool discovery, sharing, reuse, and characterization.