Shared Resource: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility

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COMPUTATIONAL/INFORMATICS SHARED RESOURCE: BIOSTATISTICS AND BIOINFORMATICS FACILITY (BBF) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT BBF was rated "Outstanding" at the last review. The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility (BBF) is a shared, institutional resource for biostatistics and bioinformatics collaboration and related methodological research. BBF is recognized Center-wide as a critical component of the research infrastructure and serves Cancer Center members from all five Research Programs. The BBF, with the direction of Eric Ross, PhD and a staff of 7 FTEs, provides Cancer Center members with rigorous biostatistics and bioinformatics design, analysis and interpretation of experiments and studies. Facility staff are broadly skilled in quantitative and computational methods for clinical trials, pre-clinical studies, biological experiments, translational investigations and cancer prevention and control problems. Its members embrace new problems and technologies that surface in a rapidly changing scientific environment. Facility biostatisticians play essential roles in all phases of study planning, reporting and design including sample size determination, randomization, and interim and final analyses. Bioinformaticians provide expertise for the analysis and exploration of diverse laboratory results including high throughput data. All Cancer Center members have ready access to the BBF’s coordinated and cost effective biostatistics and bioinformatics services. BBF maintains statistical and bioinformatics software packages for data analysis; visualization; sample size/power estimation; sequence analysis; pathway and network analysis; and annotation. BBF interactions with laboratory, cancer control, translational and clinical investigators have extended the interpretation of experimental data and contributed substantially to FCCC research. BBF’s members published 260 papers from 2011 to June 2015 (91% increase over 2006-June 2010). BBF members’ development of specialized biostatistics and bioinformatics methods to support Cancer Center projects resulted in 16 methodology/first author publications in clinical trial design, observational study methods and high throughput data analyses. From 2011-2014, BBF provided 39,359 hours of support to the research activities of 105 Cancer Center members. 32,565 hours were in support of peer-review-funded members from all five Research Programs. In 2014, the facility provided 9,534 consulting hours supporting 90 Cancer Center members. 7,423 hours were in support of 67 peer-reviewed members. BBF reviews the statistical soundness of all protocols involving human subjects in conjunction with the Research Review Committee. It is advised by a Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) that meets at least annually. Recommendations from the FAC are directed to a governing Facility Parent Oversight Committee (FPOC) that serves to ensure that the BBF continues to have the resources needed to provide the highest quality of quantitative services for Cancer Center members. Demand for services is expected to increase in the next CCSG cycle due to plans to recruit in all 5 Research Programs, and new demand from Cancer Center members at TU.