COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES The JAX Computational Sciences (CS) Shared Resource is central to the achievement of the JAX Cancer Center's (JAXCC) scientific program objectives. As cancer research has become increasingly data intensive, it is vital that investigators be capable of interpreting and leveraging vast data sets, both publicly available and internally generated, to understand tumor biology. Such data analysis requires access to a dynamic suite of analytical tools; infrastructure supporting those tools; computational, bioinformatic and statistical expertise to mine and analyze the data; and quantitative analysts and software engineers to develop and build queries and algorithms. Established in 1998, CS has been operating as a shared resource within the JAXCC since 2001 but was dramatically expanded in 2013. The 41 member CS group addresses faculty needs by providing in-depth expertise to JAXCC members in support of their independent research projects. This includes guidance in experimental design; support for the integration of multi-platform data sets, data analysis software applications and database development; development and application of computational procedures, statistical methods and scientific software; and project management. CS also provides training and mentorship opportunities in computational cancer research approaches and manages a plethora of analysis pipelines essential for cancer genomic research conducted by JAXCC members. Staff include a multi-disciplinary mix of computational biologists, computer scientists, statisticians, bioinformatics software engineers, and research project managers, who bring significant depth of expertise in cancer genomics, metabolomics, biostatistics, software development, machine learning, single cell genomics and integrative analysis, consistent with the needs of JAXCC members. CS' three operational groups (Statistics and Analysis, Scientific Computing, Research Project Management) are housed on the Bar Harbor, ME and Farmington, CT campuses, and each supports JAXCC members on both campuses. Functioning in a modular manner, PIs can access the right mix of experienced expertise tailored to their scientific needs.
The Specific Aims for CS are: 1) To support JAXCC members in developing cutting-edge analytical procedures for emerging problems in cancer genomics, and to carry out integrative analysis in fundamental and translational cancer research; 2) To develop bioinformatics applications, maintain scientific analysis workflows, and provide data architecture and software engineering expertise for the development and management of scientific data portals pertaining to specific scientific questions addressed by JAXCC members; and 3) To assist in resource planning for and management of complex computational projects and long-term information technology and data science development for JAXCC members.
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