The Bioinformatics Shared Resource, a core function of Duke Comprehensive Cancer Institute (DCCI), supports the research needs of DCCI Investigators (and secondarily, other Duke Investigators) with respect to bioinformafics and complex data management and integrafion. Its mission is to provide ai high-quality, service-oriented, coordinated, bioinformatics infrastructure for DCCI researchers, one which Increases collaborations across DCCI programs and between DCCI and other Duke programs. This core provides resources to DCCI programs and individual laboratories, coordinates institutional efforts in bioinformatics, helps drive the development ofthe biotechnology and pharmaceufical sectors within Duke, and creates synergy between scientific and clinical groups. Services include state-of-the-art software to support a full range of research involving '-omics' data, consultation and programming to assist with study design and analysis, CPU fime for computafionally intensive calculafions, data storage, and training. The Resource coordinates its activities and directions closely with those of caBIG and NCI initiatives in integrative research. The importance of the Bioinformatics Shared Resource within DCCI and at Duke has amplified with the explosion of genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and other high-throughput data types; these data carry vast potenfial ufility for clinical and translational research, especially when combined with dinical, imaging, and other scientific data. Initially, this core focused on supporting DCCI studies involving DNA sequence and microarray gene expression data; we developed software and tools for visualizafion, data mining, and annotation, first for individual research projects and then extrapolated for the general heeds of genomics studies. Using microarray data as a starting point in a series of trials, we have honed our ability to integrate complex '-omic' data into clinical trials. We have also developed caBIG infrastructure and tools, and controlled vocabularies. These capabilities, and our team which now possesses requisite skills and experience, position us at the center of a distributed knowledge transfer system that links the DCCI, Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Shared Resources, and Duke Translational Medicine Institute, and the caBlG infrastructure and Nafional Bioinformafics Strategy. We have strengthened our role with each of these entities. The Bioinformatics Shared Resource functions as a service and knowledge vector through which we are transferring lessons learned in bioinformatics and '-omic' sciences, and the benefits of new technological capabilities, to users across DCCI. Investigators spanning scientific disciplines that use high-dimensional bioinformatics data (e.g., genomics, metabolomics, proteomics) can leverage our expertise to increase the quality and efficiency of complex, integrative, collaborative cancer research.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 513 publications
