CF Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core

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The overarching goal of this application is to continue to develop the Dartmouth Cystic Fibrosis Research Center (DartCF), building on our strong history of CF-related research and expanding our capability to investigate host-microbe interactions in the gut, and their impact on gut dysbiosis and overall systemic health of patients with CF-related diabetes. The primary objective of the Cystic Fibrosis Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core (CF-BBC) is to provide expert-level bioinformatics and biostatistical support and training. State-of-the-art bioinformatics and biostatistics have become essential in biomedical research in general, and CF research in particular, because of increasingly complex experimental designs and the large data sets that arise from genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and related high-dimension techniques. We have found that CF researchers trained in bioinformatics and biostatistics are better positioned to analyze their own data than staff at generic data analysis Core facilities, and that CF researchers share what they’ve learned with others in their field. Therefore, investing in bioinformatics and biostatistics training is an effective and efficient response to rapidly increasing amounts of CF related scientific data. We have successfully trained four CF scientists who are now participating as instructors in our educational programs, and dozens more who report that they are sharing their training in bioinformatics and biostatistics with CF researchers on an informal basis. Importantly, we host two intensive courses to provide training in the technical and statistical foundations of applied bioinformatics, and our instructional system includes weekly meetings (R Club) and seminars at which students and faculty present their experience using statistical, graphical, and informatics tools. These weekly meetings are designed in part by participants from the CF research community, keeping our educational agenda in sync with evolving research needs. Our model of providing bioinformatics support is also innovative because CF- BBC bioinformatics and biostatistics specialists are trained CF researchers. This greatly improves communication and makes the Core more valuable in areas like experimental design, understanding biological meaning of results, suggesting follow up experiments, writing manuscripts and dealing with reviewer comments. Finally, the CF-BBC is innovative in its commitment to Open Science. Our Core helps the DartCF community format and annotate data, and deposit it in appropriate databases, making our data more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) by others. We also help DartCF researchers find, download and reanalyze public data sets relevant to their research, allowing them to generate new hypotheses and ensure that preliminary findings are reproducible. In summary, the mission of the CF-BBC is to provide expert-level bioinformatics and biostatistical support and training to DartCF faculty and trainees, and our partnering institutions, and to support and enhance Open Science.