Data Sciences Core (Core E)

Data Sciences Core ABSTRACT The Tennessee Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is located in the Southeastern United States, the region with the greatest number of new HIV acquisitions, and of persons living with HIV. The CFAR continues its fourway partnership between Vanderbilt University Medical Center (a research-intensive institution), Meharry Medical College (a burgeoning health sciences center), the Tennessee Department of Health (an academically engaged state health department), and Nashville CARES (a sophisticated HIV community-based organization). The Data Sciences Core (DSC) has been a critical component of the CFAR and will continue to pursue its overarching goal of elevating the quality of HIV/AIDS research. Thoughtful study design, data collection, statistical analysis, and tool development are essential to high-quality HIV/AIDS research. The DSC has provided epidemiologic, statistical, and informatics support to HIV/AIDS investigators at the four partner institutions. The DSC consults with and advises Development Core Award applicants prior to submission, provides guaranteed statistical/informatics support for award recipients, and actively collaborates with CFAR investigators at all participating institutions. The DSC collaborates closely with other cores and develops novel resources, tools, and methods to enhance HIV/AIDS research at the participating institutions and beyond. The DSC team has broad HIV research experience, including leadership roles in international HIV research consortia, long-standing collaborations with HIV investigators, experience handling and analyzing large -omics datasets, and proven track records of developing and deploying modern analytic methods informed by and beneficial to the HIV research community. The DSC will provide mentorship and training by actively participating in scientific working groups, sponsoring data science seminars, and providing topic-specific instruction at walk-in clinics. DSC services are expanding to include analysis support for collaborative projects with the Tennessee Department of Health and with community partners to conduct analyses within their secured data environments. The well-attended data science walk-in clinics will continue in both virtual and inperson formats for investigators at all participating institutions. The DSC, in collaboration with the Advanced Technologies Core, has also added expertise in high-throughput bioinformatics, so that CFAR investigators may fully take advantage of state-of-the-art single-cell transcriptomics and related technologies at Vanderbilt. DSC service offerings are continually informed by user feedback and CFAR strategic planning initiatives. The DSC will support the mission of this CFAR by pursuing three specific aims: 1) To provide biostatistics and biomedical informatics support to CFAR; 2) To develop databases, tools, and methods to advance HIV research in CFAR and beyond; and 3) To provide data science training to CFAR investigators.