Training Program in Bioinformatics at the Intersection of Cancer Immunology and Microbiome

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R25 · $279,732 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Modern cancer immunology research studies the complex interactions among the tumor, host immune system and microbiome, and depends on an array of technologies that were unimaginable a decade ago. To design, execute, and interpret experiments using these technologies, it is not sufficient for cancer researchers to understand the biology of cancer; they must also understand the assay technology and the analysis methods used to interpret the resulting data. The complexity presents a challenging task and a huge unmet need in the education of cancer researchers, as what needs to be learned cuts across multiple disciplines: cancer biology, immunology, microbiology, statistics and bioinformatics. To address this pressing knowledge gap for cancer researchers, we propose a modular series of annual two-week summer courses that spans and integrates the analysis of microbiome, immunology and cancer high-throughput data. These courses will include coverage of the biology, assays, online resources, bioinformatics pipelines and statistical methods needed to rigorously analyze and correctly interpret the results. Comprehensive educational material with integrated data sets from the course will be made publicly available as scientific notebooks to cancer researchers everywhere.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10457252
Project number
5R25CA244070-03
Recipient
DUKE UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator
Cliburn C Chan
Activity code
R25
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2022
Award amount
$279,732
Award type
5
Project period
2020-07-01 → 2025-06-30