Bioinformatics Core

Project Summary/Abstract The primary goal of the Bioinformatics Core of VCU’s U4HELPP is to provide data management, quality control, reproducible analyses, data storage, and data sharing with the PDXNet network for all information generated by our project. In addition, it will provide centralized bioinformatics, statistical and methodological support for the two research projects, Pilot Project, and future projects that will build upon them. The Core will serve as the focal point governing the experimental design, data management, and statistical analyses for the two research projects. We will reach these goals through three aims. The first aim establishes the protocol to develop and maintain a central data, resource, and sample management system that enables an interface between multiple disciplines including genomics, basic science, and clinical medicine. This aim will ensure that all data and analyses are of high quality, conform to good laboratory practices specifications, and are disseminated to all PDXNet members in a timely fashion. The second aim will be to provide bioinformatics, statistics, and methodological support from project initiation through completion and beyond. The third aim will improve quality of analysis of sequencing data from minorities by constructing and applying the ancestry appropriate reference genome. The Core includes members from the Department of Biostatistics at VCU, the Bioinformatics Shared Resource and Cancer Informatics Shared Resource at Massey Cancer Center (MCC).