Bioinformatics Support for Cancer Control & Population Sciences

UF Health Cancer Institute BCB-SR Bioinformatics Team

Meet Your Bioinformatics Team

• 3 bioinformaticians with complementary skills
• 30+ years combined experience
• Integrated approach collaborate with one, benefit from all

Brief intro - emphasize we’re partners, not a service. We become key personnel on grants and are invested in your success.

Why Bioinformatics for Cancer Control Research?

Cutting edge cancer control research requires:

• Molecular characterization of disparities across populations
• Ancestry analysis to understand genetic contributions to risk
• Biomarker discovery for prevention and early detection
• Intervention response measurement at molecular level
• Integration of genomic, environmental, and behavioral data

CCPS research increasingly uses molecular data to understand disparities, identify who’s at risk, and measure intervention effectiveness. This requires specialized bioinformatics expertise to design studies, analyze complex data, and translate findings into actionable insights.

Our Collaboration Model

Not a service core - we’re partners. Key personnel on grants, funded through your research, invested in your success.

Bioinformatics Project Lifecycle

We support the full lifecycle - from grant writing through publication. This is especially important for longitudinal intervention studies and population-based research where robust data management is critical.

Relevant Expertise for Cancer Control Research

Highlighting our most relevant experience for your research: - RNA-seq: Hundreds of datasets - biomarker discovery, intervention response, molecular subtyping - Ancestry analysis: Population genetics, admixture, GWAS in diverse populations
- Methylation: Environmental exposures, disparities research - Single-cell & spatial: Emerging tools for understanding heterogeneity in diverse populations

We understand the unique analytical challenges for each platform and can help design studies that work.

Strengthening Your Grant Applications

NIH expects plans for:
• Code & software
• Data management & sharing
• Computational resources

If your project includes high-dimensional data, an expert bioinformatician makes the proposal stronger.

• Assays chosen with clear rationale
• Experimental design avoids QC pitfalls
• Named personnel to analyze data
• Code & software packages specified
• Compute & storage resources identified
• Results visualization approach defined

We help craft compelling data management plans, justify analytical approaches, and budget appropriately. This is especially critical for studies involving diverse populations, longitudinal designs, or multi-omics approaches.

Experience = Robust, Reproducible Analyses

Critical for cancer control research:

• Distinguishing technical artifacts from biological signal
• Batch effects in longitudinal studies
• Small sample sizes from diverse populations
• Complex experimental designs (interventions, time series)

Our experience with hundreds of datasets means we catch problems early. This is especially important for intervention studies where batch effects could mask real treatment effects, or population studies where technical variation could be confused with biological differences between groups.

Discussion: Your Research Needs

Let’s discuss:

• Planning studies with RNA-seq or genomic data?
• Need support for population genetics or ancestry analysis?
• Intervention studies with molecular endpoints?
• Grant proposals in development?

Contact us:
Email: UFHCC-BCB-SR@ad.ufl.edu
Jason Orr Brant • Heather Kates • Kalyanee Shirlekar

More resources & documentation

Open for questions and discussion. Happy to talk about specific analytical challenges or upcoming projects.