# Core 2: Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 2020 · $164,749

## Abstract

Core 2: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 
All projects in this Ovarian SPORE generate large amounts of data using a wide variety of assays, and are 
associated with clinical trials testing the efficacy of new therapeutic options. The Biostatistics and 
Bioinformatics Core (Core 2) provides the quantitative expertise required to distill useful information from these 
various types of data, and to design and analyze the data from the clinical trials being run. Neither of these 
tasks is trivial. Assays now available (e.g., next-generation sequencing for mutation analysis, methylation 
arrays for epigenetic studies, expression arrays) are extremely powerful and can detect subtle changes that 
may be driving phenotypic changes, but this very sensitivity means they are also quite capable of detecting 
assay artifacts if proper experimental design (e.g., randomization) is not used. Further, the raw data generated 
requires substantial preprocessing before valid inferences can be drawn. Members of Core 2 have the training 
to address these tasks, which are common to the various projects—many of the same assays are being used 
with different experimental goals in mind, but the data analytic questions are parallel. Similarly, while all clinical 
trials have common goals (dose finding, treatment assessment), explicitly specifying what must be done to 
produce trials likely to provide the most information while putting the fewest patients at risk requires expertise 
in both the elicitation of relevant information and the ability to examine likely outcomes (often through 
simulation). Some common designs exist for the most frequent approaches pursued, but recent advances in 
the past few decades have allowed us to develop new strategies that may be better suited to the tasks at hand 
where the computing power now exists to explore how the operating characteristics are improved. 
Providing optimal support for the projects also requires the flexibility to address new challenges and 
opportunities that may arise. In this iteration of the SPORE, some of these challenges and opportunities 
include trying to optimally exploit both (a) data uniquely available within MD Anderson, where coupling of 
laparoscopic examination and biopsies with surgical evaluation lets us acquire both pre- and post-treatment 
samples from the population of interest, and (b) the wealth of public profiling data (e.g. TCGA ovarian assays) 
which can help winnow real phenomena from chaff. Core 2 has this flexibility, and is working with SPORE 
investigators on these tasks even now. 
Further, as the studies being pursued in the SPORE show, the separation between complex assays and 
clinical trials is becoming increasingly blurred. Moving forward will require clear thinking about what types of 
inferences can be reliably used, and how. Members of Core 2 are widely recognized for their contributions to 
this debate, which enables them to better support the SPORE.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10005293
- **Project number:** 5P50CA217685-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Ying Yuan
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $164,749
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-22 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10005293

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10005293, Core 2: Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core (5P50CA217685-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10005293. Licensed CC0.

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