CRI Informatics - Cancer Research Institute

Mining Data for Cures

Harnessing the Power of Data

Bioinformatics involves acquiring, organizing, analyzing, and storing biological data to support patient care and inform future studies in the lab and clinic. Harnessing the power of patient and preclinical data to advance cancer immunology is a priority for CRI and its network of scientists. CRI is heavily invested in bringing this information to the forefront of cancer research by encouraging scientists to share data with other scientists from around the world.

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Building a Data Resource for Scientists

CRI’s informatics platform is a living and breathing data resource for scientists, incorporating user feedback to improve functionality and accessibility. We are committed to training the next generation of immunologists in how to use data science to fuel breakthrough discoveries. We also teach data scientists how to read immunological data.

CRI is developing and implementing our bioinformatics tools and funding programs. These platforms and funding programs harness the power of massive datasets and accelerate computational analysis that paves the way for groundbreaking insights in immunotherapy.

The first of its kind, the CRI’s iAtlas is a piloted and tested bioinformatics platform that offers scientists valuable insights into human-tumor data and discovery. Here, scientists can upload their data and cross-reference that against a vast data set in immunological responses and, from this, draw new insights about the specific drivers of individual patient immune responses to immunotherapies.

The CRI iAtlas doesn’t only house critical data. This platform is designed for scientists on the frontlines of cancer immunology research and offers an interactive repository for mapping molecular data in an immunological context on a global scale.

This robust, open-access platform supports the computation and visualization of correlations among features related to the tumor microenvironment. The CRI iAtlas platform also contains data on cell composition, immune expression signatures, tumor mutational burden, cancer-driving mutations, adaptive cell clonality, patient clinical outcomes, immunomodulator expression, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte profiles/ImmunoScore™.

The future of iAtlas will include more modular functionalities that are thoughtfully designed to aid scientists in interacting with and extrapolating insights from clinical trial results, immuno-oncology web platforms, and a set of analytics tools for harmonized data exploration and discovery in the context of tumors and the immune system.

CRI Informatics programs:

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Immuno-Informatics Fellowship Program

Addressing a critical need in immuno-oncology, this program trains data scientists to interpret data from cancer immunology studies and, vice versa, trains immunologists and tumor immunologists in computational bioinformatics, preparing them to generate and analyze massive computational datasets and providing an essential skill in a field that requires this training.

LEARN ABOUT THE ACCELERATOR

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Bioinformatics Bootcamp

A weeklong practicum for CRI-funded scientists to train immunologists and tumor immunologists in techniques to analyze their own data using the bioinformatics tools, including the CRI iAtlas.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOOTCAMP