Bioinformatics

ABSTRACT The primary function of the Bioinformatics Core is to provide bioinformatics services and infrastructure for the MSK research community. This can range from providing complete analysis services beginning with raw data and ending with publishable results or it can consist of assisting and supporting the growing number of computational researchers with specific data analyses. A central mission is the creation and maintenance of both a repository of robust, vetted software applications and pipelines that implement the current state-of-the-art data analysis and a collection of well documented methods and best-practices. This ensures that critical analysis steps are done in a reliable, reproducible, and understandable way, freeing the laboratory-based staff to focus on the analysis that is specific to their particular experiment and saving them time and effort in re-inventing well known bioinformatics processes. This also leads to a far more costeffective process with greater quality control. This consistency enables the institution to provide sharable and consistent results that can be further used for integrative and pan-group analysis. The Core also plays a central role in training staff in both methods and in the use of the institution’s high performance computing infrastructure. Additionally, the Bioinformatics Core provides customized computational and statistical assistance, facilities collaboration and integrative analysis via data and code sharing, enables access to institutional databases and provides applications for the creation and curation of research data. The Core trains computational and bioinformatics staff working in concert with other departments to develop and teach workshops and training seminars. Finally, the Core works on the research and development of algorithmic best practices, evaluates current applications and pipelines, and deploys new tools as new experimental methods and assays are developed.