Celebrating COSMIC and 20 years of enhancing cancer research

Here we reflect on the history, achievements and evolution of the COSMIC database, which was developed and continues to be run by a team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. We look forward to seeing COSMIC’s ongoing journey and its global impact on advancing precision medicine.

COSMIC (Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer) holds information on millions of mutations from thousands of cancer types. Based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, this world-leading and unique resource helps scientists learn more about cancer biology and identify new treatment targets. COSMIC gathers global cancer genomic data that focuses on non-heritable, or somatic, mutations, and recently released the 100^th version of its knowledgebase.

In June, the COSMIC team hosted a celebration for its 20^th anniversary to share stories from COSMIC’s history and explore future opportunities in cancer genomics.

“COSMIC ensures that cancer research data have real-world impact. Reaching the twenty-year mark is a significant achievement, especially since the Sanger Institute celebrated its thirty-year milestone last year. Aggregating such diverse data on different cancers has significantly changed cancer biology, as well as other rare diseases caused by cancer. COSMIC has a non-profit and self-funded model which will help secure the project’s longevity whilst searching for mutations, identifying new cancers and developing novel treatments to benefit patients."

Professor Matt Hurles,
Director, Wellcome Sanger Institute

This chart shows a timeline of key events for the creation of the COSMIC knowledgebase, from before COSMIC was launched through to the present day. The axes highlight the number of curated papers as they increase over the years. Click on the grey circles along the chart to reveal a pop-up box and learn about these milestones.

Looking to the future, the COSMIC team will focus on two key areas. The first is to improve the knowledge held in the catalogue, by collecting more comprehensive data using faster and cheaper technologies. They will leverage infrastructure innovations, including secure cloud-based computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

The second focus will be enhancing accessibility through closer community engagement, improving data access and enriching the user experience of the website, alongside education and training. COSMIC data will also cover ethnically diverse populations to help address health inequalities. The information will follow FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data standards and the team will contribute to global advocacy via the Lancet Oncology Commission.

“COSMIC has had an incredible 20-year journey and continues to play a significant role in advancing cancer research. The achievements of COSMIC have been aided by the Sanger Institute, which provides access to leading-edge technology and large-scale data. From Mike’s initial dream and information on just a few genes, we have quickly transformed COSMIC into the gold standard resource for cancer genomic research.

“COSMIC will continue to be a cornerstone for somatic genomics and precision medicine. I look forward to the team’s continued evolution, embracing new technologies and expanding its scope to include more comprehensive and diverse datasets. Our goal is to ensure that scientists from all sectors have access to this invaluable resource and that we can support improved patient care and the move towards personalised medicine."

Jon Teague,
Director, COSMIC

Scientists across the world can use COSMIC, which has a hybrid licencing model that provides academic centres with free access to the data, website and downloads.

COSMIC also offers commercial licences for pharmaceutical (pharma), biotechnology (biotech) and healthcare organisations. Pharma companies use COSMIC data to identify potential drug targets, study the evolution of drug resistance and repurpose existing therapies. The biotech industry uses COSMIC to build genetic analysis tools and develop genomic research products. Within healthcare, clinicians use COSMIC to annotate patient reports, identify clinically similar subgroups of patients and find genetic differences associated with disease.

“Each year, our new students are introduced to COSMIC at the very first attendance seminar, and they are blown away by the wealth and the depth of information on somatic mutations occurring in cancers."

Scientific Director Advanced Oncology Study Program, Ulm University

The launch of COSMIC in the early 2000s had a significant impact on cancer genomic research over the past two decades. By harnessing the information in COSMIC, scientists have made numerous discoveries. For instance, they identified that certain genetic variants, such as TERT promoter mutations, are driver mutations – meaning they contribute to the initiation and progression of cancer. As COSMIC incorporates the latest technologies and innovations, it will continue to play a major role in the advancement of cancer research and treatments, ultimately supporting the inevitable and long-awaited dawn of personalised medicine.