{"id":"idc-gtex","title":"GTEx","short_title":"gtex","aliases":["gtex"],"summary":"The GTExGenotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project established a data resource and tissue bank to study the relationship between genetic variants and gene expression in multiple human tissues and across individuals. The project included contributions from numerous groups with diverse expertise in biospecimen collection and processing, pathology review, molecular analysis, and data management. The contributors are collectively called the GTEx Consortium. GTEx collected a total of 26,468 unique tissue samples from 50+ different tissue types, from 956 healthy postmortem donors. The standardized biospecimen collection and analysis practices applied during the study served to minimize preanalytical variability associated with specimen-related factors and their potential impact on analytic endpoints. Each GTEx tissue was divided into two tissue blocks, one for histology and one for molecular analysis; both tissue blocks were preserved in PAXgene Tissue Fixative (Qiagen) solution for 6 to 24 hours, followed by PAXgene Tissue Stabilizer (Qiagen) as specified in the project-specific standard operating procedures . Tissue blocks were processed and embedded in paraffin at the GTEx central repository at the Van Andel Institute (MI) and hematoxylin and eosin–stained slides were generated from all GTEx donors. Digitally scanned whole slide images of PAXgene-fixed/stabilized, paraffin-embedded tissue sections were created using Aperio Scanscope software (Leica Biosystems). The digital images were then reviewed and annotated by one of four board-certified pathologists assigned to the GTEx study. There are a total of 25,503 digital histology images in the GTEx collection. Please see the GTEx information page to learn more about the images and to obtain any supporting metadata for this collection.","one_liner":null,"identifiers":[{"scheme":"idc_collection_id","value":"gtex","url":"https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/explore/?collection_id=gtex","is_primary":true,"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},{"scheme":"tcia_collection","value":"GTEx","url":"https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/collections/","is_primary":false,"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},{"scheme":"zenodo","value":"10.5281/zenodo.11099099","url":null,"is_primary":false,"evidence":[{"method":"fulltext","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC collection description","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":"tudy. There are a total of 25,503 digital histology images in the GTEx collection. Please see the GTEx information page to learn more about the images and to obtain any supporting metadata for this","locator":"accession extracted from description prose","confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"Cross-repository link recovered from prose; verify before relying on it."}]}],"repository":{"name":"NCI Imaging Data Commons","short_name":"IDC","url":"https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov","is_nci_crdc_node":true,"is_nih_repository":true},"additional_repositories":[],"program_name":"NCI Imaging Data Commons / The Cancer Imaging Archive","program_url":"https://imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/","nci_program":"IDC","generating_institutions":[],"data_generation_funding_role":"unknown","version":null,"release_date":null,"last_upstream_update":null,"retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","landing_page_url":"https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/explore/?collection_id=gtex","cancer_types":[{"label":"Non-diseased","ontology":null,"code":null,"url":null}],"primary_sites":["Various"],"subject":{"scope":"non_cancer","tissues":[],"evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":null,"source_label":"cds.subjects","retrieved_at":null,"snippet":null,"locator":"cancer_types: Non-diseased; primary_sites: Various","confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"The repository filed only non-cancer material."}]},"is_pediatric":null,"model_systems":[],"cohort":{"n_cases":971,"n_samples":null,"n_aliquots":null,"n_files":null,"total_bytes":null,"n_tumor_cases":null,"n_normal_cases":null,"has_matched_normal":null,"demographics":{"sex":{},"race":{},"ethnicity":{},"age_at_diagnosis_years":{},"vital_status":{},"country_or_region":{},"evidence":[]},"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},"assays":[{"modality":"radiology","label":"DICOM medical imaging","platform":null,"n_cases":971,"n_samples":null,"n_files":null,"data_levels":["DICOM series"],"access_tier":"open","evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},{"modality":"clinical","label":"Clinical (accompanying data, per IDC supporting_data)","platform":null,"n_cases":null,"n_samples":null,"n_files":null,"data_levels":[],"access_tier":null,"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":"field: supporting_data","confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},{"modality":"wgs","label":"Genomics (accompanying data, per IDC supporting_data)","platform":null,"n_cases":null,"n_samples":null,"n_files":null,"data_levels":[],"access_tier":null,"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":"field: supporting_data","confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]}],"clinical_variables":[],"longitudinal":{"has_followup":null,"has_survival_endpoint":null,"survival_endpoints":[],"median_followup_months":null,"max_followup_months":null,"n_cases_with_followup":null,"has_serial_samples":null,"timepoints":[],"n_cases_with_serial":null,"has_treatment_response":null,"response_criteria":[],"evidence":[]},"access":{"tier":"open","open_components":[],"controlled_components":[],"mechanism":"Public DICOM download from the IDC portal, its API, or the idc-index Python package; no account required for public collections.","dua_url":null,"data_access_committee":null,"typical_turnaround":null,"embargo_until":null,"login_required":false,"citation_requirement":"Cite the collection DOI and the IDC/TCIA data-citation guidance.","license":"Per-collection license, typically CC BY 3.0/4.0 or CC BY-NC","publication_policy_url":"https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/data-usage-policies-and-restrictions/","evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/collections/gtex","source_label":"IDC v3 API /collections","retrieved_at":"2026-09-18T02:44:36.389375Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]},"useful_for":[],"limitations":[{"kind":"missing_data","statement":"IDC serves no clinical table for this collection, so nothing about outcome, stage, treatment or demographics can be read from the repository. Any such variable would have to come from the originating trial or publication. The collection's own supporting_data field nevertheless lists clinical data, so the two disagree.","severity":"blocking","affected_analyses":["survival","treatment response","stage-adjusted modelling","analysis by race or ethnicity"],"mitigation":null,"evidence":[{"method":"api","source_url":"https://api.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/v3/clinical/tables","source_label":"IDC v3 API /clinical/tables","retrieved_at":"2026-09-19T03:20:46.830869Z","snippet":null,"locator":"collection_id=gtex: no clinical table is served","confidence":"high","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":null}]}],"inappropriate_uses":[],"primary_publications":[],"reuse":[],"reuse_metrics":{"n_candidates_screened":0,"n_by_tier":{},"n_by_tier_raw":{},"accession_precision":null,"n_citations_to_primary_publication":null,"citation_to_reuse_ratio":null,"has_citable_accession":false,"n_verified_reuse":null,"n_reuse_examined":0,"n_independent_reuse":0,"n_nci_funded_reuse":0,"first_reuse_year":null,"latest_reuse_year":null,"years_since_release":null,"expected_reuse":null,"reuse_gap_index":null,"reuse_gap_percentile":null,"search_strategy_id":"epmc-index-v3","searched_at":"2026-09-20T18:07:30.926009Z","no_reuse_identified":false,"evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":null,"source_label":"reuse index","retrieved_at":"2026-09-20T18:07:30.926009Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"low","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"This dataset has no accession specific enough to search for in the literature, so citation-based reuse cannot be measured. Absence of a count here is not evidence of absence of reuse."}]},"underexplored":{"is_underexplored":false,"basis":["Not assessed: this dataset has no accession specific enough for citation-based reuse tracing, so a shortfall cannot be measured."],"index_value":null,"percentile":null,"comparator_set":"rgi-huber-v2","evidence":[]},"grants":[],"access_steps":[{"order":1,"action":"Open the collection in the IDC portal","detail":"Browse the series before downloading; imaging collections can be very large.","url":"https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/explore/?collection_id=gtex","requires":[],"est_time":"5 minutes","cli_snippet":null,"audience":"human","evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":"https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/explore/?collection_id=gtex","source_label":"IDC access documentation","retrieved_at":"2026-09-21T12:30:59.428988Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"Generated by applying the repository's documented access policy to this dataset's identifiers. It is not a reviewer's account of this dataset."}]},{"order":2,"action":"Read the collection's own licence","detail":"Per-collection license, typically CC BY 3.0/4.0 or CC BY-NC. IDC licences differ by collection.","url":"https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/data-usage-policies-and-restrictions/","requires":[],"est_time":"5 minutes","cli_snippet":null,"audience":"human","evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":"https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/data-usage-policies-and-restrictions/","source_label":"IDC access documentation","retrieved_at":"2026-09-21T12:30:59.428990Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"Generated by applying the repository's documented access policy to this dataset's identifiers. It is not a reviewer's account of this dataset."}]},{"order":3,"action":"Download with idc-index","detail":"The package resolves the collection to its buckets and pulls selected data.","url":"https://github.com/ImagingDataCommons/idc-index","requires":[],"est_time":"hours for a full collection","cli_snippet":"pip install idc-index\npython - <<'PY'\nfrom idc_index import IDCClient\nIDCClient().download_from_selection(collection_id=\"gtex\", downloadDir=\".\")\nPY","audience":"human","evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":"https://github.com/ImagingDataCommons/idc-index","source_label":"IDC access documentation","retrieved_at":"2026-09-21T12:30:59.428991Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"Generated by applying the repository's documented access policy to this dataset's identifiers. It is not a reviewer's account of this dataset."}]},{"order":4,"action":"List the series before pulling pixels","detail":"List modality and size first so an agent can choose what to fetch.","url":"https://learn.canceridc.dev/","requires":[],"est_time":null,"cli_snippet":"python - <<'PY'\nfrom idc_index import IDCClient\ni = IDCClient().index\ns = i[i[\"collection_id\"] == \"gtex\"]\nprint(len(s), \"series\", s[\"PatientID\"].nunique(), \"patients\",\n      round(s[\"series_size_MB\"].sum() / 1024, 1), \"GB\")\nprint(s[\"Modality\"].value_counts().to_dict())\nPY","audience":"agent","evidence":[{"method":"derived","source_url":"https://learn.canceridc.dev/","source_label":"IDC access documentation","retrieved_at":"2026-09-21T12:30:59.428993Z","snippet":null,"locator":null,"confidence":"medium","reviewer":null,"reviewed_at":null,"note":"Generated by applying the repository's documented access policy to this dataset's identifiers. It is not a reviewer's account of this dataset."}]}],"analysis_examples":[],"agent_package":{"json_url":"/data/datasets/idc-gtex.json","jsonld_url":"/data/jsonld/idc-gtex.jsonld","croissant_url":"/data/croissant/idc-gtex.json","instructions_url":"/data/agent/idc-gtex.md","bundle_url":null,"mcp_resource_uri":null},"related_dataset_ids":[],"related_underexplored_ids":[],"review":{"status":"machine_only","reviewer":null,"reviewer_affiliation":null,"reviewed_at":null,"sections_reviewed":[],"open_questions":[],"notes":null},"verification":{"last_verified_at":null,"link_checks":[],"n_links_ok":0,"n_links_broken":0,"upstream_version_seen":null,"upstream_version_changed":false,"upstream_counts_seen":{},"upstream_drift":{},"notes":[]},"is_showcase":false,"completeness_score":16.1,"tags":["idc","imaging","imaging-genomics"],"search_text":null}