# Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIDC) Supplement Request

> **NIH NIH U24** · DANA-FARBER CANCER INST · 2022 · $1,000,000

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Cancer immunotherapies have emerged as highly promising approaches to treat cancer patients, particularly
since they can be applied across different tissue and cancer types, although clinical efficacy has been limited
to a subset of cancer patients1. Translational studies with strong focus on biomarkers are critical to
understanding the tumor-immune interface. Although numerous technologies for tumor and immune profiling
are applied to NCI sponsored immunotherapy trials, standardization of both assay protocols and data analysis
methods is crucial to data integration and comparisons across studies for biomarker identification2. This
underlines the need for data harmonization and creation of uniform analysis pipelines.
We propose to continue development of the Cancer Immunology Data Commons (CIDC) at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute with the goal of advancing translational research efforts using biomarkers to aid in the further
development of cancer immunotherapy. The short-term objectives of this application are to establish and
manage the data repository for biomarkers and associated clinical data for Cancer Immune Monitoring and
Analysis Centers (CIMACs), and provide an informatics environment for integrative multidimensional analysis
across different studies and storage of data generated. Specifically, we propose to: Aim 1, coordinate with the
CIMAC and Laboratory Coordinating Committee (LCC) to harmonize establish assay protocols and data format
standards; Aim 2, develop a centralized data repository and management system, and coordinate CIMAC data
submission to the CIDC; Aim 3, develop uniform bioinformatics processing pipelines and computing
infrastructure for computationally intensive analyses for the CIMACs and the larger research community; Aim
4, provide bioinformatics algorithms to enable integrative and correlative analysis of CIMAC data and integrate
other accessible databases and resources for biomarker discovery; Aim 5, develop centralized role-based data
access functions with advanced programming interface to enable sharing of CIMAC data; Aim 6, develop
interactive web visualization functions to enable investigators and the immunology communities to examine the
CIMAC data; and Aim 7, coordinate within the CIMACs-CIDC Network logistic and scientific activities for
biomarker discovery and validation.
At the conclusion, we will have established a biomarker repository for all data and results generated by
CIMACs, supplemented with standardized informatics tools for integration with other accessible databases,
and compatible for data contribution and secondary analyses by external researchers. These efforts will
provide bioinformatics support for the CIMACs-CIDC Network. The established Data Commons will also
provide the foundation for a future immuno-oncology data resource for the larger research community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10617928
- **Project number:** 3U24CA224316-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** DANA-FARBER CANCER INST
- **Principal Investigator:** Ethan Cerami
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,000,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-09-30 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10617928

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10617928, Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIDC) Supplement Request (3U24CA224316-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-02 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10617928. Licensed CC0.

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