Integrative Bioinformatics Core

ABSTRACT Precision medicine is an emerging integrative approach for disease prevention, early detection and treatment that takes into account individual variability in genetics, medical history, environmental exposures, and lifestyle. The development and availability of genomic and other molecular profiling technologies, particularly with recent advances in single-cell profiling, in combination with the deployment of electronic health records (EHR) provide an unprecedented opportunity to apply precision medicine strategies in rheumatic disease research. The goal of the Integrative Bioinformatics (IB) Core is to provide researchers with state-of-the-art computational approaches for the study of rheumatic disorders. Directed by leading experts in computational biology and bioinformatics, the IB Core will provide investigators with assistance in study design; bioinformatics analysis of clinical and bulk- and single-cell omics data; data integration; and data dissemination. To advance rheumatic disease research in the context of precision medicine, the IB Core will work in collaboration with the Genomic Technology (GT) and Clinical Data Informatics (CDI) Cores to provide tools and workflows for the analysis and integration of high quality genomic, molecular and clinical data. With those goals in mind we propose the following aims. In Aim 1, we will provide analytical consulting services in study design, data analysis and data integration with public datasets in order to advance precision medicine in rheumatic disease research. In Aim 2, the IB Core will develop novel tools, software and analytical pipelines for the integration, annotation, analysis, retrieval, and presentation of data from clinical and molecular studies of rheumatic diseases including single-cell sequencing and CyTOF data. As a result of this Aim, we will furthermore establish and maintain a technologically up-to-date toolset that can be readily used for systems-level analyses of the data. Aim 3 is to integrate molecular and clinical data and leverage collaborations between the GT and CDI Cores to facilitate integrative computational analysis for a wide range of clinical, translational and basic research studies to enable precision medicine in rheumatology. Finally, in Aim 4, we will provide centralized internal and external data management and storage including assistance in real-time project development using the UCSF Data Library and in dissemination of data for P30 associated projects using the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal (ImmPort). The IB Core will bring together researchers from different backgrounds and enable investigators whose work can benefit from access to state-of-the-art computational technologies and approaches, with an overall goal of advancing precision medicine in rheumatology.