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Australian Cardiovascular Disease Data Commons (ACDC)

Summary

The Australian Cardiovascular disease Data Commons (ACDC) is a secure, scalable, internationally-integrated data infrastructure that pools harmonized data from approximately 400,000 individuals across 18 Australian population and clinical cardiovascular cohorts, roughly 70,000 of whom carry molecular (omics) profiling [1][2][3]. Built on the Gen3 platform and governed under FAIR and ethical principles, it lets researchers explore and access cross-cohort data through a centralized, custodian-controlled process to discover mechanistic drivers, biomarkers, and personalized risk predictors for coronary artery disease (CAD) [1][5]. It is led by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and described in a 2025 Nature Reviews Cardiology article by Giles and Meikle [1].

Motivation

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide, and in 2021 accounted for 25% of all deaths in Australia; CAD is the most common form by deaths and hospitalizations.[1][2] Although standard modifiable risk factors have driven prevention for decades, a growing number of patients present with few or no risk factors, and CAD often develops silently over years until a major event occurs — motivating the search for novel biomarkers and mechanistic pathways.[1] Data-intensive techniques (genomics, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, immune phenotyping, advanced imaging) create the opportunity, but researchers previously could not readily combine cohorts from independent studies for combinatorial analysis; ACDC exists to remove that barrier.[1][2]

Scale and Contents

  • ~400,000 individuals (reported as >390,000) across 18 population and clinical cohorts; molecular profiling exists for ~70,000 individuals, spanning >200,000 omics analyses.[1][3]
  • Cohorts: 45 and Up, MCCS, ASPREE, ADVANCE, AusDiab, FIELD, LIPID, Baker Biobank, BioHEART-CT, CDAH, Busselton, PREDICT, BioHEART-MI, PROPHECY (Indigenous), Caught-CAD, EDCAD-PMS, DaVinci, and BIRCH (Indigenous).[1] Two of the 18 (PROPHECY, BIRCH) are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cohorts.[1]
  • Omics / modalities: genomics (SNP array and whole-genome/whole-exome sequencing), lipidomics, metabolomics, proteomics, inflammatory/immune phenotyping, epigenetics, and imaging.[1] Many cohorts also carry longitudinal cardiovascular outcomes and comprehensive imaging.[1]

These datasets form the first iteration of the platform; additional cohorts and datasets will be onboarded over time.[1]

Data Harmonization and Platform

  • Harmonization is a core feature: clinical data and outcomes are harmonized through extensive consultation with data custodians (clinicians, clinical researchers, epidemiologists), and omics datasets are harmonized using international best practices with the experts who generated them, producing analysis-ready datasets.[1]
  • Platform: built on Gen3, with a defined data dictionary across all associated studies, integrated federated identity and access management, and synthetic non-sensitive data for security and user testing.[2][4] A user-friendly interactive interface supports cohort exploration and identification of relevant cohorts to answer a research question.[1]
  • Access points: the ACDC portal (heartdata.baker.edu.au) and the Gen3 commons/discovery interface (commons.heartdata.baker.edu.au).[5]

Data Access and Governance

  • Data access is administered through a centralized process; a Data Access Committee ensures scientifically rigorous, ethically responsible, and clinically meaningful use, but the data custodians for each cohort make the final decision on each proposal.[1]
  • Governance operates under FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and ethical principles.[5]
  • A multi-disciplinary Scientific Advisory Committee (clinicians, researchers, digital-infrastructure experts, and a consumer representative) shapes scientific objectives and advises the Project Management Committee; it is co-chaired by Bernie Pope (Australian BioCommons) and Gemma Figtree (University of Sydney), with members including Peter Meikle, Jean Yang, Corey Giles and Tingting Wang, plus international advisors Ashok Krishnamurthy (RENCI/NHLBI) and Robert Grossman (University of Chicago, Gen3).[2]

Partners and Funding

  • Led by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Prof. Peter Meikle), with the Australian BioCommons leading the digital-infrastructure component; core partners are the University of Sydney and CAD Frontiers.[1][2] It is part of the Australian BioCommons Human Genome Informatics initiative.[2]
  • Additional contributions from the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA), 23Strands, CSL Limited, the Broad Institute (program management), and data custodians.[2]
  • Funding: a $3M MRFF 2022 National Critical Research Infrastructure Grant ("Building an Australian Cardiovascular disease Data Commons"), awarded June 2023, plus Bioplatforms Australia (NCRIS) and in-kind partner contributions bring the total project value to ~$9M.[2][4] The paper records MRFF grant identifiers RFRHPI000110 and MRFCRI000210.[1] A prior CAD-ACvA pilot (funded by Bioplatforms Australia/NCRIS, University of Sydney/MRFF, and Baker/Heart Foundation) laid the groundwork.[2]
  • Timeline: June 2023 to December 2027.[2][4]

Scientific Aims

ACDC is designed to let researchers uncover hidden drivers of disease risk, progression, recovery and survivorship — deriving new mechanistic insights, identifying predictive biomarkers, building multimodal models, and developing personalized risk-prediction algorithms for CAD — and to support a translational pipeline for deploying and evaluating those predictors in clinical practice.[1][2]

Relationship to the Lab's CVD Subtyping Work

Lab context: ACDC is the data infrastructure underpinning this lab's cardiovascular work; its CTCA-with-omics cohorts (e.g. BioHEART-CT, BioHEART-MI, DaVinci) are the kind of deeply-phenotyped resource that the polygenic subtyping of cardiovascular disease program relies on, and its two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cohorts (PROPHECY, BIRCH) are relevant to the equity/priority-population dimension of that work. As harmonized, access-ready, governed, multi-omic national infrastructure with existing consumer representation, ACDC is a direct asset for the data-readiness, partnership, and equity elements assessors reward (see the lab's grant-strategy notes, grant/stream3-topicA-requirements.md).

See Also

Citations

[1] Giles, C. G., & Meikle, P. J. (2025). Building the Australian Cardiovascular disease Data Commons. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 22, 837–843. DOI: 10.1038/s41569-025-01208-0. Source: s41569-025-01208-0.pdf. Supports: scale (~400k / 18 cohorts / >200k omics analyses), cohort list, omics modalities, harmonization, Gen3 platform, access/governance, aims, motivation, and MRFF grant IDs above. Location: Full text — Nature Reviews Cardiology "Tools of the trade" article and acknowledgements. Verified 2026-07-21.

[2] Australian BioCommons. Australian Cardiovascular disease Data Commons (ACDC). biocommons.org.au/acdc. Source: acdc-biocommons.md. Supports: timeline, $3M MRFF grant / June 2023 award, pilot, Gen3 platform features, partners/contributors, Scientific Advisory Committee membership, and the 25%-of-deaths figure above. Location: Full page. Verified 2026-07-21.

[3] CAD Frontiers. ACDC Data Platform. cadfrontiers.com.au/acdc-data-platform. Source: acdc-cadfrontiers.md. Supports: 394,000 individuals, molecular profiling of ~70,000, and the "up to 19 cohorts" framing above. Location: Full page. Verified 2026-07-21.

[4] Bioplatforms Australia. Australian Cardiovascular Data Commons. bioplatforms.com. Source: acdc-bioplatforms.md. Supports: $9M total / $3M MRFF, June 2023–December 2027 timeline, and platform description above. Location: Full page. Verified 2026-07-21.

[5] Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. ACDC Data Commons portal. heartdata.baker.edu.au. Source: acdc-heartdata-baker.md. Supports: FAIR-and-ethical-principles framing and the portal/access-point above. Location: Full page. Verified 2026-07-21.

[6] Australian BioCommons. New paper describes the ACDC. biocommons.org.au/news/acdc-paper. Source: acdc-biocommons-paper.md. Supports: publication of the Nature Reviews Cardiology paper and the ~400,000 individuals / 18 clinical-and-population cohorts summary above. Location: Full page. Verified 2026-07-21.