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Kids First Data Resource Center set to ‘unlock potential’ of genomic data in pediatric cancer
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The NIH established the Kids First Data Resource Center, a pediatric cancer and rare disease data program that will enable clinicians and researchers to collaborate and access multiple genomic datasets.
The resource center — the first of its kind in the pediatric research community — is designed to create a centralized, cloud-based database and discovery portal of clinical and genetic sequence data from various pediatric cancers and structural birth defects cohorts, such as congenital heart defects, hearing loss and cleft palate. The program also will develop analytical tools to provide access to this large-scale data for use in the discovery of novel and improved treatments for children with these conditions.
“There is an unprecedented amount of genomic data available, and these data hold the promise of yielding breakthroughs for debilitating pediatric diseases,” co-principal investigator Adam Margolin, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering and director of computational biology at OHSU School of Medicine and Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute, said in a press release. “The idea behind the data resource center is to unlock this potential by allowing researchers and clinicians across the world to easily apply advanced analytics to as much pediatric cancer and rare disease data as possible.”
Contingent on available funds, the NIH Health Common Fund's Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program will award a 5-year grant of $15 million to establish the Kids First Data Resource Center.
At inception of the project, investigators will work to make genomic sequencing data available from approximately 6,000 pediatric patient samples, growing to more than 25,000 by 2018.
The resource center also will integrate data collected from more than 2,000 children with brain tumors from the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium and the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium.
“Scientists are beginning to recognize the developmental biology connections between structural birth defects and pediatric cancers, and building on that shared understanding, we can now leverage new technologies, cloud computing, and sophisticated algorithms for collaborative discovery to develop improved, less toxic therapies,” Adam Resnick, PhD, director of the Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a press release.
The collaboration includes investigators from the Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute; the Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; the biomedical data analysis firm Seven Bridges; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; the University of Chicago; and Children's National Health System.
The program is primarily led by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NCI, the National Human Genome Research Institute and the NHLBI.
“NICHD is committed to supporting research on birth defects as part of its overall focus on improving the health of children,” Diana Bianchi, MD, NICHD director, said in a press release. “The Kids First initiative provides a unique opportunity to use DNA sequencing information to gain a better understanding of the underlying causes of birth defects and childhood cancers.”