Human blood samples were preserved in Tempus Blood RNA tubes for shipping. Library preparation was performed with the Illumina TruSeq Stranded mRNA (incl. Ribo-Zero Globin) technology, according to the manufacturer ́s protocol. After depletion of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial rRNA as well as globin mRNA using the Ribo-Zero Globin technology, included in the TruSeq® Stranded Total RNA library prep kit, the samples were quality controlled. Therefore, the RNA 6000 Pico LabChip kit was used on the 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). All libraries were quantified using the highly sensitive fluorescent dye-based Qubit® ds DNA HS Assay Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific). All single libraries were pooled into several sequencing library pools with an equal DNA amount per sample. Subsequently, the sequencing library pools were pooled separately with libraries of other projects for sequencing in several NextSeq HighOutput runs. Clustering of the library pools was performed on the NextSeq® 500 sequencing system (Illumina). RNA libraries were prepared for sequencing using standard Illumina protocols