NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Human Genome Research Institute today launched the first version of a free, online toolkit of phenotypic data.
NHGRI said that the resource is aimed at standardizing measurements of research subjects' physical characteristics and environmental exposures. It said that the toolkit will provide researchers with more power to compare data across multiple studies, which will accelerate efforts to understand the complex genetic and environmental factors that cause cancer, heart disease, depression, and other common diseases.