# Informatics resources for liquid biopsy research

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $373,980

## Abstract

Abstract
A liquid biopsy is a non-invasive alternative to surgical biopsies which enables doctors to
discover a range of information about a tumor through non-solid biological tissue, primarily
blood. cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in human blood has emerged as an ideal source of genetic
information for cancer detection and monitoring. cfDNA fragments are released by dying cells
into the blood stream, including circulating tumor DNA that are released by tumor cells. In
principle, tumor cfDNA contains genetic and epigenetic alterations identical to the tumor cells
they originate from. These molecular alterations include (but not limited to) single nucleotide
variations (SNV), structural variations, copy number variations, and DNA methylation changes.
Next generation sequencing has been extensively used in “liquid biopsy” for targeted or
genome-wide profiling of cfDNA. Given the inherent nature of cfDNA as a mixture of DNA
fragments released from all possible cells in the body, and given the demand of sensitivity and
specificity in detecting the tiny fraction of the ctDNA, specific bioinformatics tools are needed.
However, currently no user-friendly and comprehensive bioinformatics tools exist to facilitate
information extraction from cfDNA sequencing data. Given the enormous potential of cfDNA-
based liquid biopsy in personalized medicine, this is an urgent demand to match. This proposal
aims to match this need. Specifically, we will develop R-workflows for the analysis of cfDNA
genomic and epigenomic sequencing data. We will extensively document the software toolkit,
and provide detailed online manual so that non-expert users can easily learn and use all its
functionalities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10242713
- **Project number:** 5U01CA237711-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Wenyuan Li
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $373,980
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-16 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10242713

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10242713, Informatics resources for liquid biopsy research (5U01CA237711-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10242713. Licensed CC0.

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