The Bioinformatics Resource supports the research needs of RPCI investigators with respect to experimental design, data integration, as well as data analysis of clinical, laboratory, and population-based studies utilizing high-throughput bioinformatics technologies. The mission is to advance cancer research and cancer treatment by providing an array of bioinformatics shared research and services to the institute community through collaboration. A key expertise is to develop and utilize state of art bioinformatics algorithms to design, analyze and integrate various voluminous “-omics” data for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human cancer initiation, progression and prognosis.
The Bioinformatics Resource takes advantage of several major computing resources available. First, each staff has a Dell Linux workstation, which is ideal for moderately compute-intensive bioinformatics projects. Second, through collaboration with the RPCI IT department, the resource has a high-performance computing cluster with 1,600 processors suitable for whole-genome sequencing analysis. Third, through collaboration with the Center for Computational Research at University at Buffalo, resource staff has high-priority access to the Linux cluster with more than 2,000 processors. These high-performance computing cluster resources are specifically designed for largely compute-intensive bioinformatics projects.
The Bioinformatics Resource will develop novel and effective bioinformatics tools for research and clinical applications, assist researchers to perform high-throughput “-omic” experiments guided by computational insights, ensure that the correct bioinformatics design and analysis methodologies are employed in relevant RPCI grant and manuscript preparations.