What are the most important public datasets in biology?

Question

[Sean Davis]

I have been asked to compile a list of the top 10 most valuable public biological datasets for potential inclusion in a data commons-like environment. The goal is to have not just large datasets, but highly valuable ones. I am interested in genomics, of course, but also in clinical datasets, well-annotated registries, etc. Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

Answer 1

[SES]

A strong case could be made for the HeLa cell line and sequence data as being the most important in biomedical research (there is a working group page with some background). An article written by Francis Collins a few years ago estimated there were over 74,000 publications that have referenced this data.

The Global Ocean Sampling Expedition data (and publication) was the first large-scale application of NGS sequencing, particularly environmental sequencing, and this study contributed a great deal to what we know about marine biodiversity.

[Sean Davis]

Thanks. These contributions are exactly what I had in mind.