Case study · Federation
ADAPTS: federated autoimmune research across NIH institutes
ADAPTS, the Autoimmune Disease Analysis Platform Testing Space, is an NLM-led federated platform supporting NIH’s Office of Autoimmune Disease Research. Lifebit is the federated platform provider. The data never leaves the source.
01 · The challenge
Autoimmune data split across institutes
Women bear a disproportionate burden of autoimmune disease. In 2023 Congress directed NIH to set up the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research, to coordinate research across institutes and to build a central resource for the field. The data it needs sits in separate labs and institutes, each with small patient groups.
Clinical and multi-omic data held separately across NIH institutes
Each dataset governed by its own principal investigator
No shared data elements across related autoimmune diseases
02 · What we deployed
A federated platform testing space inside NIH STRIDES
ADAPTS connects clinical and multi-omic datasets held across NIH institutes and centers into one federated platform. Each research group’s data stays in its own secure node inside NIH STRIDES; researchers query, harmonize, and analyze it in place.
Ingest in place
Each group’s data stays in its own node. Nothing is copied to a central store.
Harmonize
Clinical data is mapped to the OMOP Common Data Model and disease-specific common data elements.
Catalog and govern
Datasets are cataloged; access is requested and approved through Airlock using GA4GH Passports.
How it works
From connected data to approved results
Source data from NIH clinical systems (CTDB, BTRIS, REDCap) and labs lands in each project’s own node inside NIH STRIDES.
Clinical data is mapped to OMOP, alongside disease-specific common data elements developed with each research group.
Investigators request cataloged datasets through Airlock; each dataset’s governing investigator approves access.
Researchers build federated cohorts and run containerized, reproducible workflows and federated learning across nodes.
What’s in the stack
Lifebit products used: Trusted Research Environment · Airlock · Trusted Data Factory
03 · The results
Five cross-institute projects, one platform
In 2026 ADAPTS supports five funded intramural projects that work across institute lines: Sjögren’s disease and lupus endotypes, myositis autoantibodies with deep proteomics, interferon-driven pediatric disease, endothelial injury in inflammatory lung disease, and spondyloarthritis endotypes using MRI computer vision and language models. The ADAPTS pilot program is open to participating NIH principal investigators for three to six months.
Timeline
About this use case
Federation
Autoimmune diseases affect small, scattered patient groups, so no single lab has enough data for strong results. Federation lets researchers query and analyze data held by different NIH groups as if it were one dataset, while each owner keeps control. The output is shared cohorts and model results, such as disease subtypes, not copies of patient records.
Who uses it here: NIH intramural investigators across institutes, with each dataset’s governing investigator approving access, and NLM and the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research running the program.
See how federation works
