PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT - BIOINFORMATICS CORE FACILITY The Bioinformatics Core Facility (BiCF) provides state-of-the-art bioinformatics expertise for the design, analysis, and interpretation of genomics, proteomics, and other high-resolution, high-throughput studies to better understand cancer biology and translate cancer -omics discoveries to cancer treatment for University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) investigators. The objective of the BiCF is to reduce the barrier for access to analytic expertise, maintain a high standard for data collection and management, design and perform rigorous analytical strategies, and foster a collaborative and supportive research community. BiCF provides expert bioinformatics support and services to carry out basic, translational, clinical, and population science research, ensuring efficiency and high-quality analytic results. In the reporting period, BiCF supported 39 unique UCCCC members (49% MMC, 8% CPC, 21% IC, 23% CET), supporting their scientific needs and meeting the strategic objectives. During the funding period BiCF supported 11 cancer-related federal grants, and 81 cancer relevant peer reviewed publications (51% in journals with impact factor ≥ 10). Future efforts towards this end include: (i) expanding and creating new pipelines to apply to other emerging genomics data including but not limited to single cell RNA-seq analysis, single-cell mass cytometry and proteomics; (ii) developing novel bioinformatics tools to handle emerging and diverse high-throughput data; (iii) collaborating with Genomics Core Facility (GCF) on a joint quarterly educational program for UCCCC investigators on understanding and using data science to strengthen their research; (iv) services for customized analysis beyond available standard pipelines on an as-needed basis. Overall, BiCF is dedicated to pursuing a bold vision in the next funding period to facilitate cancer research and provide cutting edge services that accelerate scientific progress.