Unlocking the potential of survival data for model organisms through a new database and online analysis platform: SurvCurv

Lifespan measurements, also called survival records, are a key phenotype in research on aging. If external hazards are excluded, aging alone determines the mortality in a population of model organisms. Understanding the biology of aging is highly desirable because of the benefits for the wide range of aging-related diseases. However, it is also extremely challenging because of the underlying complexity. Here, we describe SurvCurv, a new database and online resource focused on model organisms collating survival data for storage and analysis. All data in SurvCurv are manually curated and annotated. The database, available at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/thornton-srv/databases/SurvCurv/, offers various functions including plotting, Cox proportional hazards analysis, mathematical mortality models and statistical tests. It facilitates reanalysis and allows users to analyse their own data and compare it with the largest repository of model-organism data from published experiments, thus unlocking the potential of survival data and demographics in model organisms.