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bioRxiv · 10.1101/453662

ETDB-Caltech: a blockchain-based distributed public database for electron tomography

Ortega, D. R.·Oikonomou, C. M.·Ding, H. J.·Rees-Lee, P.·Alexandria,·Jensen, G. J.
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Abstract

Three-dimensional electron microscopy techniques like electron tomography provide valuable insights into cellular structures, and present significant challenges for data storage and dissemination. Here we explored a novel method to publicly release more than 11,000 such datasets, more than 30 TB in total, collected by our group. Our method, based on a peer-to-peer file sharing network built around a blockchain ledger, offers a distributed solution to data storage. In addition, we offer a user-friendly browser-based interface, https://etdb.caltech.edu, for anyone interested to explore and download our data. We discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of this system and provide tools for other groups to mine our data and/or use the same approach to share their own imaging datasets.

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Ortega, D. R., Oikonomou, C. M., Ding, H. J., Rees-Lee, P., Alexandria,, Jensen, G. J.. 2018-10-25. ETDB-Caltech: a blockchain-based distributed public database for electron tomography. https://doi.org/10.1101/453662

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