Cancer Informatics

Genomics and proteomics data being generated on clinical tumors has the potential to transform cancer management. High-throughput technologies of molecular profiling at the genome, transcriptome, epigenome, protein, and pharmacological levels are evolving very rapidly, but computational approaches for converting results of those technologies into clinical progress are lagging.  In most medical research institutions the limiting factors to utilize this wealth of information are the development adaptation and integration of statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, and computational biology approaches.  Researchers with experience in using high-throughput technologies are aware of the profound challenges involved in design of the experiments, extraction of reliable de-noised biological signal and the downstream biological interpretation of the data.  The computational faculty members at the CHIBI have the skills to address many of the cancer bioinformatics challenges productively and contribute to the enterprise of personalized cancer medicine. 

Cancer bioinformatics is key for the success of the Cancer Institute translational and clinical research programs. A substantial part of the bioinformatics activities within CHIBI is driven by close collaboration with the cancer institute members in a fashion that addresses the needs of translational researchers, both bench scientists and clinicians.  In addition a key for success in the field of cancer bioinformatics requires academic leadership in integrative cancer bioinformatics and computational analysis.  Stronger academic standing will increase the caliber of services provided by the CHIBI.  CHIBI faculty whose research focus is cancer informatics are highly competitive for grants and collaborative projects. Collaboration with CHIBI faculty will strengthen the computational analysis and biological interpretation components of other preclinical and clinical grants from the Cancer Institute.

The mission of the CHIBI faculty involved in cancer research is to: (i) provide optimal bioinformatic support for the preclinical and clinical research communities at the Cancer Institute; (ii) develop a research program in integrative cancer bioinformatics; and (iii) provide training and training tools in bioinformatics

The balance between the time and man power resources needed to perform experiments and computational analysis of the data generated in high-throughput cancer studies will continue to shift progressively toward the latter.  Not all experimentalist will need to have the in house capabilities to analyze sequencing datasets.  But every bench researchers and clinician-scientists will need to have access to bioinformatics resources for biological interpretation -- to complement what they are doing at the bench or bedside. 

A central theme for CHIBI is the harnessing of information from multiple types of molecular profiling and multiple systems levels for practical applications to the attack on cancer. Integration of data from microarray and other profiling platforms at the DNA, RNA, protein, chromosomal, metabolomics, and pharmacological levels and its analysis will continue to be a central to the activity of the cancer bioinformaticians at the CHIBI. 

• Interactions with the program of Computational Biology

• Faculty Mentoring and Development

• Interactions with NYU main campus, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Columbia, Rockefeller and other nearby Universities in the tri-state area.

• Bioinformatics software tools and resources. The CHIBI makes internal and external innovative bioinformatics tools and other cancer data resources available for clinical and preclinical studies.  Toward that end, CHIBI has a team of first-rate software designers well-versed in current advances in cancer bioinformatics.

• Interaction with other major players and projects in bioinformatics -- the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG), The Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA), the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) project, etc.  CHIBI interacts intensively with the major players and projects in bioinformatics, nationally and internationally.