News

Keep up with the latest news from the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) and the data science communities.

If you’re attending the 2022 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (either in person or virtual), don’t miss these data science sessions, poster presentations, and the NCI exhibit booth, where you can hear more about our programs and activities!

NCI has just launched the Molecular Characterization Initiative, fostering data sharing in childhood cancer research. This program offers tumor molecular characterization to children, adolescents, and young adults who have been diagnosed with central nervous system tumors and are being treated at hospitals affiliated with an NCI-supported clinical trials group, “Children’s Oncology Group.” The DNA and RNA in participants' tumors are analyzed through this voluntary, free program. Once data is available, cancer researchers will be able to access the data via the Cancer Research Data Commons.

Interested in making data discoverable to the larger research community? Share your perspective with NIH, who wants to know how to improve data searchability and discovery. Cancer researchers, data submitters/generators, data users, and technology providers should respond by December 3, 2021.

CBIIT Director, Dr. Tony Kerlavage, along with NCI staff and a host of experts in childhood cancer research, recently published an article, “Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC): Scientific Drivers for Informatics, Data Science, and Care in Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer,” in JCO Cancer Clinical Informatics. The article summarizes the Fall 2020 CI4CC Symposium and showcases the scope of initiatives underway to address childhood cancer, with a particular emphasis on how data science and informatics are helping to support these initiatives.

This Request for Information is intended to obtain information to formulate a procurement strategy for a data platform to support the National Childhood Cancer Registry, a component of the larger Childhood Cancer Data Initiative.

The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative invites researchers capable of performing molecular characterizations (e.g., whole exome sequencing, RNA sequencing) to submit a proposal to develop a childhood cancer molecular characterization protocol by April 12, 2021.

The NCI’s Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) has released a new video about the initiative's vision of building a community around childhood cancer and research data. Featured in the video are advocates such as Amanda Haddock, president and co-founder of Dragon Master Foundation, and pediatric cancer researchers like Dr. Ned Sharpless, NCI Director, and Dr. Sam Volchenboum, Director of the Pediatric Cancer Data Commons. This video shares the importance of CCDI and its aspirations to improve outcomes for children and adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer.

NCI Director Dr. Ned Sharpless shared an update on the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) and how it is leveraging data science and data sharing to rapidly improve treatments for childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancers.

Cancer researchers, scientists, advocates, and stakeholders came together on July 29 – 31 at the National Cancer Institute’s Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) Symposium to discuss opportunities to enhance data sharing and collection for progress in childhood, adolescent, and young adult (AYA) cancer research.

Calling patients, parents, researchers, clinicians, advocates, data scientists, engineers, and developers! The NCI Childhood Cancer Data Initiative invites you and anyone with a bold idea to submit ideas to enhance data sharing for progress against childhood cancer by August 9th, 2019.