Q1 Priorities 2026

# A laundry list for Q1

- Resubmission of first white paper (WP) and submission of the second (@nekrut )
- Conferences / conferences / conferences (EVERYONE)
- Hardening E2E with Candida (WP2) and P14 data
- Starting to test BRC Agent on JetStream (@dannon)
- NCBI Datasets integration (@d-callan)
- Solving SRA connection issue (@mvdbeek)
- Adding workflows (@d-callan + @nekrut )
- Adding taxa (@d-callan )
- Site polish - help and descriptions everywhere (@scottcain). Movies (@nekrut)
- Logan / lexicMap - testing on test + Vista, getting ready for deployment (@Smeds )

## Resubmission of first white paper (WP) and submission of the second

The first paper is being completely rewritten with a focus on agentic AI integration with the firm deadline at the end of this week (Feb 7) to be shown to Google and Anthropic. It will incorporate both measles and see our population resequencing data, which is already complete.

## Conferences

Submit as many abstracts as possible targeting oral presentations. We need to be shown in force this year so multiple communities know that we exist and offer great functionality.

## Hardening E2E with Candida (WP2) and P14 data

To demonstrate the new spreadsheet functionality, I propose to add a very simple RNA-Seq analysis, just two or three conditions from a Candidozyma paper. In other words, we can insert this into white paper too and submit it with that piece. Separately, or perhaps for white paper too as well, we can reanalyze B14 data from Jonathan and also use that as an example.

(@nekrut ) -> find a person who can test it

## Starting to test BRC Agent on JetStream

Hook the existing agent to JetStream backend and use Anthropic API key to get some experience with how it can be used. We need to decide whether we just need one agent for the whole site or separate agents for organism selection or for SRA searches.

## NCBI Datasets integration

Get link outs from NCBI datasets to BRC analytics ASAP!!!

## Solving SRA connection issue

We need to have a robust and reliable way to get data from SRA into Galaxy Workflow launches or into Galaxy No Workflow launch interface. So we need to decide whether we're sticking with EBI (likely NO) or moving to NCBI SRA, and if we do this, whether we go in this via run selector or we simply repurpose existing Parallel Upload Workflow and just run it every time on a set of accessions and then start the next workflow invocation.

## Adding workflows

Add all workflows that rely on a single reference. Make special provisions for meta-genomic and genome assembly workflows so they start at the tab interface on top of BRC.

Also need to prototype and add comprative workflow: #1153

## Adding taxa

Decide how to prioritize updates to our list of species and assemblies.

## Site polish

Rethink homepage make it easier to find relevant information. Provide as much help text as possible for all critical elements of the site.

## Logan / lexicMap

This is huge! We're almost there. We have indexes for lexicMap, we have indexes for Logan. We know that lexicMap already works on Vista. We need to ensure that Logan works on Vista, and we need to prepare for spreading the word immediately. So we need to demonstrate key example analyses and how they integrate into greater BRC and the Galaxy ecosystem.

See #1151