# The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics

> **NIH NIH U24** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2024 · $1,447,287

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Genomic sequencing of tumor samples is now a routine component of cancer care, providing unprecedented
insight into cancer initiation, progression, and treatment effects. Additionally, novel molecular profiling and
imaging techniques are gaining traction, generating ever more data. Ensuring that these data sets are easily
accessible and interpretable to scientists and clinicians is of vital importance. Towards this end, we seek to
evolve and expand the capabilities of the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics, a unique platform that enables
interactive exploratory analysis of large-scale cancer genomic data. The cBioPortal is the most widely used
and most highly cited tool within the cancer genomics community. The public site, with data from 325 cancer
studies, is accessed by >34,000 unique users each month. The cBioPortal instance that supports AACR
Project GENIE, a multi-institutional data sharing initiative, now hosts genomic profiles from >120,000 tumors.
Since the software is available under an open source license, >65 cancer centers and pharmaceutical
companies have institutional installations of cBioPortal to analyze their own data. Multiple institutions are
making contributions to the software, including the five that are part of this application (Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Princess Margaret Cancer
Centre, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). To ensure that this vital resource continues to aid the cancer
research community and to keep pace with the rapidly advancing fields of cancer genomics and precision
cancer medicine, including the continuing increase in the number of profiled tumor samples, we propose to
actively sustain and evolve the cBioPortal platform. Specifically, we plan to make improvements across the
entire cBioPortal software architecture (Aim 1); this includes significant changes to address key performance
bottlenecks, a new API capable of supporting federated queries, a new App Store, and improvements to our
cloud infrastructure and data pipelines. We will also support several new molecular data types, add two entirely
new cBioPortal views, develop new features for precision oncology, and improve general usability (Aim 2). We
propose to continue funding a group of core developers across five institutions, expand the base of code
contributors, and continue to collaborate with The Hyve to support biotech and pharmaceutical companies (Aim
3). Finally, to maximize use in the scientific community, we plan to continue to improve community outreach,
user support, and training (Aim 4). These improvements will be necessary to ensure that cBioPortal continues
to provide an essential service for cancer research and development of new biomarkers and drugs, especially
as more cancer centers are using the cBioPortal as part of their precision medicine programs, and as
pharmaceutical companies are using it for internal research. We expect that, over the nex...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10916187
- **Project number:** 5U24CA274633-03
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** Ethan Cerami
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,447,287
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-05 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10916187

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10916187, The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics (5U24CA274633-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10916187. Licensed CC0.

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