Track data hubs provide a convenient efficient mechanism for importing collections of large personal datasets into the UCSC Genome Browser for browsing, analysis and sharing with the research community. We are working with other genomics tools providers, such as Ensembl (Flicek et al., 2013), to standardize the track data hub interface and add support for hub displays on other genome-browsing platforms. Future plans include extending the browser’s track search mechanism to work with hubs, expanding the flexibility of track data hub organization and configuration in the browser, providing more sample files and a wizard program to facilitate track data hub construction and adding support for more data types. Recently UCSC has also added support for assembly data hubs, which enable individuals to easily extend the Genome Browser to display genome assemblies not included in the browser database.
