Cancer Bioinformatics: Data analysis and method development for the Yale Cancer Center

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ABSTRACT Bioinformatics skills and tools are critical for the analyses of vast amount of data generated by Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and have become an integral field for gaining insight into cancer biology. While laboratory protocols to generate NGS data have become more standardized, researchers find it difficult to bring expertise in bioinformatic data analysis into their practice. The Yale Cancer Center (YCC), one of the 51 NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, aims to understand and prevent cancer, detect cancer early, and manage cancer treatments more accurately and effectively. YCC is committed to fulfilling these goals by supporting collaborative research and education activities aimed at achieving breakthrough discoveries and training future leaders in cancer science and medicine. The YCC supports and manages Shared Resources that provide unique expertise and enabling technologies that enrich the scope and expedite progress for each of the YCC research programs. As Associate Director of Bioinformatics at the Yale Center for Genome Analysis (YCGA), one of the YCC Shared Resources, I established the bioinformatics analysis services for the YCC with the goal of bringing bioinformatics and NGS expertise closer to the cancer investigators. My bioinformatics work with them for the last 9 years has focused on three areas: 1) providing full “design-to-publication” bioinformatics support; 2) facilitating access to new genomic technologies and develop/build new analytical pipelines to enable cutting edge genomics; and 3) providing training and education in cancer bioinformatics through mentoring, seminars, and workshops. I have brought such expertise to over 300 projects for 78 laboratories, have developed new data analysis pipelines and enabled new NGS applications, and have trained many students and researchers to become proficient in their own bioinformatics analyses. During my work for the YCC, I have co-authored over 28 publications in leading scientific journals with YCC investigators, involving a diverse set of analysis for different techniques, cancer types, and organisms. The support of the R50 award will allow me to continue to develop and use bioinformatics tools to increase the progress and scope of cancer research and provide broader access and training to YCC researchers.