Informatics Shared Resource

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The mission of the Vanderbilt-lngram Cancer Center Informatics Shared Resource (ISR) is to catalyze the research productivity of VICC investigators by providing two essential ingredients for success. The first is a flexible physical and electronic infrastructure for acquiring, storing, communicating and analyzing data arising from wet bench, translational, and clinical cancer research. The second is assistance by senior-level staff and faculty in the interpretation of research datasets using state-of-the-art analysis methods where they are available, and the development of novel bioinformatics methods where current analytical approaches are insufficient. The ISR in its current form has evolved from the Tissue Clinical Informatics Shared Resource that was created during the preceding grant period. That resource had a focus on the informatics of characterization, annotation and tracking of tissue samples associated with clinical trials and basic research. At the time of the last competitive renewal, this shared resource received an Outstanding rating. We have broadened the scope of the resource to support all of the basic, translational and clinical research of VICC, thus leading to our renaming ofthe resource in the current application. The resource has been strengthened by two new faculty hires - Mia Levy, M.D., and Zhongming Zhao, Ph.D. Dr. Levy is a Stanford-trained medical oncologist with a Master's degree in Biomedical Informatics who serves as the VICC Clinical Informatics faculty lead for development and deployment of advanced clinical research and cancer care systems. Dr. Zhao is Chief Bioinformatics Officer for VICC and heads a new Bioinformatics Data Interpretation service available to Center Investigators. Dan Masys, M.D., a medical oncologist and chair of Vanderbilt's Department of Biomedical Informatics, leads the resource, and Scott Sobecki, an experienced senior information technology professional, directs a team of in-house programmers and systems support staff. The ISR benefits from the information technology resources of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which provide a fertile environment for informatics innovations in support of basic, translational and clinical cancer research, and cancer care that will measurably advance the state of the art.