Workshop: Resident Project Development Using Publicly Available Dog Aging Project Data

Presentation Description / Summary: The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a long-term, longitudinal, community science, Open Data study of the genetic and environmental determinants of aging in dogs. Since data collection began in 2019, we have enrolled over 47,000 dogs by collecting detailed baseline information about them through our Health and Life Experience Survey (HLES). Concurrent medical records have been submitted for over 20,000 of these dogs, for standardized data extraction. Owners are invited to update their HLES annually, and to date we have collected first-year and second-year follow-up on over 11,000 of our participants. Additionally, throughout the year our participants provide additional information through a dozen additional focused surveys and interactive tasks that may be deployed to all participants, or to select nested cohorts. Over 6000 participating dogs have been whole-genome sequenced, and biospecimens are collected annually on 1000 dogs. DAP data are carefully quality-controlled and made publicly available in annual Curated Data Releases that any non-commercial researcher or member of the public may access. The first 30 minutes of this session will be an overview of the Open Data currently available through the DAP, with a focus on recent publications. The latter 60 minutes will be discussion, then small-group discussion, intended to develop analysis-ready research projects for residents and early-career specialists in attendance. Please bring individual laptops to this session.

Learner Outcomes: Upon conclusion of this session, attendees will have gained or created: 1) Understanding of the nature of available data in the DAP 2) Awareness of how to independently obtain data 3) A first draft of a specific project proposal that is immediately actionable by that person, using DAP data