Database of the Dried Blood Spot Proteome

Sammanfattning

The lack of a database for Dried Blood Spot (DBS) obstructs the widespread implementation of DBS in research-based and clinical applications. The aim of the project was therefore to develop a database, more specifically a data sheet of protein concentrations from DBS and associated metadata, and an application that enables filtering and visualization of the compiled data points. To construct the data sheet, an extensive literature review was conducted, in which adequate data points and associated metadata were collected. The application was then developed with the data sheet as a basis, and consisted of four pages – Home page, Data page, Plot page and Sources page. The created data sheet contained varying distributions of different categories for the respective metadata. The Data page enabled searching and filtering of the data sheet, while the Plot page enabled visualization of data in the data sheet. Both the Data page and the Plot page were designed for efficient and user-friendly filtering, searching, and visualization of the data points, which contributed to making the application both intuitive and user-friendly. However, there are some limitations with the database as the existence of metadata was inconsistent for the data points. In addition, there are inherited limitations from the sources used, which further affect the applicability of the database. There are improvements for both the data sheet and the application that have the potential to address some of the identified limitations and generally improve the database. Despite the limitations of the database, it could possibly contribute with positive societal, economic, ethical and environmental impacts. In conclusion, the project highlights the possibilities of DBS and provides a useful tool that can be further developed. The project can thus promote a broader and easier implementation of DBS in the research field and has the potential to facilitate clinical implementation of DBS in the future.