Bipolar Disorder Brain Age Secondary Analysis Science Gateway

ENIGMA is a network of imaging and genetic researchers working to understand human brain structure, function and disease. One of its working groups focuses on bipolar disorder which is a mental disorder with periods of depression and periods of elevated mood (mania). By combining data from across the globe processed identically, the working group has already discovered patterns of cortical and subcortical brain abnormalities in bipolar disorder. Now, some researchers in the group are conducting a secondary analysis to better understand how aging impacts the brain in bipolar disorder. A powerful analysis of "brain age" will be made possible by collecting structural information obtained from thousands of human brain scans and relating it to chronological age.

We built the ENIGMA Bipolar Brain Age Secondary Analysis science gateway to help researchers gather data that has already undergone some processing by other ENIGMA researchers. This science gateway gathers data usage agreements, allows users to upload multiple data files in CSV format, and validates the uploaded data. Additionally, a super-loader feature allows a researcher to upload data for another researcher once the proper agreement has been submitted. Lastly, the gateway will combine the separate files into one large master file which then can be downloaded for further analysis.

This science gateway is built with the support of the Science Gateways Community Institute using Drupal, an open-source, PHP-based web framework.