ANALYTICAL SERVICES & SUPPORT
Services at the Center | Analytical Services | General Computing Services | Working with the CCCB | Request for Services
Services at the Center
The CCCB offers a wide range of analytical services for projects large and small. While the primary emphasis of our services are bioinformatics in nature, limited support is also provided for more general computing needs such as scientific programming, relational database design, and systems administration. The CCCB will also offer a variety of data analysis workshops and training sessions, institutional software licenses, and seminar series.
Operating on a collaborative, fee-for-service basis, the Center adds bioinformatics expertise to an investigators’ own knowledge of his or her system to accelerate discovery.
Analytical Services
We offer a analytical services for genomic and other ‘omic data including: gene expression, copy number variation, ChIP-chip/ChIP-seq, SNP, and next generation DNA sequencing data.
Some examples of the type of questions we can work with investigators to answer are as follows:
- * Identify novel gene signatures, and validate them using our large in-house cancer gene expression profile database.
- * Discover which biological pathways are differentially expressed.
- * Identify pattern of chromosomal abnormalities and loss of heterogeneity in aCGH data from SNP arrays.
- * Discover promoters or regulators of gene expression.
- * Build network models of gene expression, protein-protein interaction and literature data to uncover new biological
- * connections.
- * Integration of high-dimensional clinical and demographic information with ‘omic data.
- * Multi-platform analysis e.g. Affymetrix, Illumina, and DASL data.
In support of our research and analytical service programs, the CCCB and our associated Computational Biology and Functional Genomics Laboratory are composed of a diverse mix of individuals with skills across the scientific/computational spectrum including biologists, programmers, bioinformaticians, and database and systems administrators. Likewise, we maintain an extensive scientific computing infrastructure that includes a high performance compute cluster, large capacity data storage arrays, and high availability clustered Oracle database systems.
Drawing from this varied expertise and infrastructure, the CCCB will offer limited support for more general scientific computing needs. Some examples of the types of services we can provide are as follows:
- * Web development and hosting.
- * Clinical data modeling and warehousing.
- * Relational database design, implementation, and support.
- * Custom software development.
- * Systems administration and support.
The analytical and general computing services of the CCCB are available to all researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and external academic and medical institutions, as well as to private and corporate researchers.
Projects at the CCCB follow a collaborative model, and typically begin with an initial consultation where an investigator will meet with an analyst to outline the scientific and technical objectives of the project. Following the initial consultation, our analysts will prepare a detailed analysis plan that includes complete cost and time estimates as well as delivery milestones. Project execution begins once a consensus has been reached on the course of action.
From the beginning of a project to the end, clients will be provided with the following:
- * An assigned point of contact who will be responsible for seeing the analysis through to its conclusion.
- * Access to a secure, password-protected collaboration portal through which information and data can be exchanged between
- * the client and CCCB staff.
- * Periodic updates on the status of the project, including any changes in time or cost estimates.
- * All work performed by the CCCB, from the development of the analysis plan to the delivery of the final results, undergoes a
- * thorough scientific review to insure that the highest standard of quality are met for each and every project.
For more information or to submit a request for analytical services, contact us using the contact page.