Speakers and Events

Bioinformatics Research and Collaboration in the Era of Big Data and Precision Medicine

As we have entered the precision medicine and big data science era, there are many unmet challenges on identifying the disease related information from large, heterogeneous data, and translating the findings for clinical use. Among these challenges, one is how to effectively identify driver mutations and genes in cancer genomes, especially those with the potential

Computational Subgroups Stratification and Precision Drug Repositioning Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Enabling precision medicine requires developing robust patient stratification methods and identifying drugs tailored to homogeneous subgroups of patients from a heterogeneous population. Once discovering these subgroups, we can align patients and medications more specifically to achieve precision-based therapy. Developing de novo drugs is expensive and time-consuming with an ultimately low FDA approval rate. These limitations make developing

Virtual Campus Visit with NSF CISE AD Dr. Margaret Martonosi

The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports a majority of US academic research in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) topic areas. Since February, 2020, Dr. Margaret Martonosi serves as NSF CISE AD, stewarding the CISE directorate’s $1B annual budget on behalf of research, education, workforce and infrastructure funding in CISE topic areas and for science as

Dissertation Defense – Utilizing Blockchain Technology for Clinical Trial Optimization

Clinical trials are the cornerstone of treatment discovery because they provide comprehensive scientific evidence on the safety, efficacy, and optimal use of therapeutics. However, current clinical trials are facing multiple challenges such as patient recruitment, data capture, and overall management. There are various causes of patient recruitment challenges such as inefficient advertising models, complex protocols,

Comprehensive Exam Announcement – A Case-Control based Genomic Analysis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a respiratory illness that affects millions of people all over the world. It is a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality and a serious global public health problem. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Although the environmental causes of COPD which predominantly include cigarette smoking

Purdue’s New Plant Sensor Technologies for Improved Phenotyping Quality

Plant phenotyping technologies have been developing rapidly over the last 2 decades. Plant sensors are becoming more precise, faster, easier to use and with lower cost. However, there are still several bottleneck issues in plant sensing, including the changing environmental conditions, the great variances on the plant, and the complicated GxTxEinteractions. These issues keep phenotyping difficult

Thyroid Cancer Informatics

Survival prediction is important both to clinicians and patients; ensuring the best course of treatment is selected to manage the thyroid cancer. In 2018, there was an estimated half a million new thyroid cancer diagnoses and 41,071 deaths. Unlike other tumors whose mortality has decreased over the last two decades, thyroid cancer mortality rates have increased. Existing risk

A Case-Control based Genomic Analysis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Building a Population-based Childhood Cancer Data Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities for Informatics and Data Science

Childhood cancer is a relatively rare disease diagnosed in over 16,000 U.S. children and adolescents (ages 0 – 19) each year. While 84% of children with cancer survive 5 years or more, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in children after accidents. Molecular variations make all childhood cancers extraordinarily rare and difficult to study. The

Using Big Data to Identify Possible External Risk Factors for Poorly Understood Cancers

Worldwide, cancer is the second leading cause of death (Cancer, 2012). There were 17 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2018, including approximately 1.7 million new U.S. cases and 600,000 U.S. cancer deaths (Cancer Facts & Figures 2018 | American Cancer Society, 2018; Worldwide Cancer Statistics, 2019). The worldwide incidence of cancer is expected to increase

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