About

Despite on-going research, metastatic melanoma five year survival rates remain low and treatment options limited. Researchers can now access a rapidly growing amount of molecular and clinical information about melanoma. This information is becoming increasingly difficult to assemble and interpret due to its dispersed nature, yet as it grows it becomes increasingly valuable for understanding melanoma biology and clinical progression. Integration of this information into a comprehensive resource to aid rational experimental design and patient stratification is needed. We have assembled a web-accessible melanoma- focused database that incorporates clinical and molecular data from several sources, which will be regularly updated as new information becomes available. The way this database is constructed, information about melanoma is incorporated as gene sets (e.g. one gene set could be those RNAs for which expression level in metastatic melanomas is significantly associated with patient survival). This melanoma- associated gene set database allows complex links to be drawn between: the genetic changes in individual melanomas revealed by DNA sequencing, associations between gene expression and patient survival, data concerning drug targets, biomarkers, druggability and clinical trials, as well as statistical analysis of relationships between molecular pathways and clinical parameters using these data sets. Several drug and biomarker gene sets are included in particular to allow the identification of novel druggable molecules associated with melanoma development or progression. The database is freely available. Detailed instructions for this database's' use can be found in the Help link at the top of this page. Please go to either of the links below to start using the database. This database was last updated on 20 May 2013. Current version 2.0.

Go to the link below to identify the genes in the intersection or union of a large number of melanoma- associated gene sets, and optionally also the intersection or union between these melanoma-associated gene sets and your own gene list. Once the genes in the intersection/union of these melanoma-associated gene sets (and optionally your own gene list) have been determined, they can be: (i) downloaded, (ii) intersected or unioned with additional melanoma-associated gene sets, (iii) assessed to identify any statistically significant enrichment for other melanoma-associated gene sets, (iv) submitted to a separate web tool (GeneSetDB) to assess whether they have statistically significant enrichment for more general gene sets related to molecular pathways, drugs and general biology.

http://genesetdb.auckland.ac.nz/melanomadb

Go to the link below if you simply want to see whether your own gene list has statistically significant enrichment for any melanoma-associated gene sets.

http://genesetdb.auckland.ac.nz/melanomadb/haeremai.php

The link below is to a tool which displays KEGG Pathways and highlights genes mutated in each of the 310 tumours included in MelanomaDB, along with drug target annotations.

http://genesetdb.auckland.ac.nz/tumour-pathway-analysis/select.php

If you need help please don't hesitate to contact us (bioinformatics@auckland.ac.nz).