Cancer Data Science Pulse

Converting the many petabytes of cancer data available on the cloud from information to answers is a complex task. In this blog, Deena Bleich shares how the ISB Cancer Gateway in the Cloud (ISB-CGC), an NCI Cloud Resource, hosts large quantities of cancer data in easily accessible Google BigQuery tables, expediting the process.

Allen Dearry, Ph.D., will retire from NCI’s CBIIT on December 31. Here Dr. Dearry reflects on his 31 years at NIH, including his role in helping to establish the Cancer Research Data Commons. He also offers advice for people just entering the field and describes what he’s planning to do next.

In this latest Data Science Seminar, Jim Lacey, Ph.D., M.P.H., shares the lessons he learned in transitioning a large cancer epidemiology cohort study to the cloud, including the importance of focusing on people and processes as well as technology. Project managers, principal investigators, co-investigators, data managers, data analysts—really anyone who is part of a team that wants to use the cloud or cloud-based resources for their studies—should attend.

The diversity, complexity, and distribution of data sets present an ongoing challenge to cancer researchers looking to perform advanced analyses. Here we describe the Cancer Genomics Cloud, powered by Seven Bridges, an NCI Cloud Resource that’s helping to bring together data and computational power to further advance cancer research and discovery.

To commemorate the National Cancer Act’s 50th anniversary, we’ve pulled together Five Data Science Technologies poised to make a difference in how cancer is diagnosed, treated, and prevented.

To the NCI Cancer Research Data Commons, cloud computing means three words: NCI Cloud Resources. These are real-world examples of making data accessible and available to all cancer researchers. Kicking off the first of a four-part blog series, the NCI Cloud Resources share their origin story and the problems that cloud computing could solve in cancer research.

On May 24, CBIIT welcomed Dr. Jill Barnholtz-Sloan as the new associate director for Informatics and Data Science. In this latest Q&A blog, Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan tells a little about herself, including what brought her to CBIIT, what keeps her centered, and what makes her most proud.

Did you ever wonder what goes into making data ready for analysis by researchers around the world? Introducing “Datum.” This single speck of data was conceptualized to show how NCI’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology supports cancer research by bringing data to life.

“Count Me In” (CMI) is a unique project that gives patients an opportunity to share their cancer-related data directly with scientists. According to Corrie Painter, associate director of CMI, this is a largely untapped but vital part of data science. Here she describes the project and what it could mean for future research efforts.

On October 20th, NCI launched the Imaging Data Commons (IDC), the latest data repository to be offered within the Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) infrastructure. Through the IDC, both researchers and clinicians will have access to a wide range of cancer-related images, including radiology and pathology imaging data, as well as their accompanying metadata.