DF/HCC Kidney Cancer SPORE Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core 1

SUMMARY The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) SPORE in Kidney Cancer Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core (Core 1) collaborates and provides consultation on all research activities within the SPORE including SPORE Projects, the Developmental Research and Career Development Programs, and other SPORE Cores - to ensure the highest standards of scientific rigor in areas of study design, data management and integrity, and data analysis and interpretation. The specific aims are to: (1) Provide biostatistical and bioinformatic expertise for the planning and design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of laboratory, genomic, animal, translational, clinical (including associated correlative studies), and epidemiological studies for SPORE Projects, Developmental Research and Career Development Program projects, and other SPORE Cores. (2) Provide consultation on all issues of data management and integrity, including data collection, storage, transfer and quality assurance, on statistical and bioinformatic software and programs, and on coordination of laboratory results with parameters and outcomes from clinical studies or clinical/translational research databases. (3) Provide short-term biostatistical and bioinformatic consulting to SPORE researchers. Organizing biostatistical and bioinformatic expertise as a shared resource core is a cost- effective approach to ensure that collaboration is readily available to SPORE investigators and an effective strategy to guarantee a high degree of integration among projects with interrelated analytic goals and needs. The development of new statistical and computational methodologies for cancer research has resulted in an expanded role for the statistician, bioinformatician and computational biologist in the research process and a higher standard for what constitutes acceptable scientific evidence in a study. Biostatisticians and computational biologists are professionally committed to staying on top of these developments and apply their expertise to check assumptions, assure appropriate use, and interpret results and limitations--a challenge beyond what can reasonably be expected of translational investigators.