Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Core

The PTraC Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core (BBC) is a partnership between the Pulmonary Division and the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis (CIDA). We provide biostatistical and bioinformatics support to Pulmonary Division researchers at any stage of a project – from grant development through peer-reviewed publications. There are two ways to request our support:

• Quantitative advice requests:  Pulmonary researchers can request a free 45-minute session with a BBC analyst to discuss ongoing analyses, study design, data collection, and processing issues, etc. – any part of the data analysis pipeline that you have questions on! We can also help discuss options for additional statistical/informatics support, including the drafting of a scope of work document. Meetings are available each month on a first-come, first-serve basis.
  
  
• Collaborative projects: For projects requiring additional quantitative support, researchers in the Division can fill out this request form with relevant project and funding information (researchers may apply for a funding waiver*). The BBC will work with you to estimate the scope of quantitative work required, which will be formalized in a written Scope of Work (SOW) document outlining the mutual expectations, an analysis sketch, relevant funding information, and a timeline of key project deliverables. For a typical scoped project, the BBC will provide:
  • Storage of data for duration of the analysis.
  • An initial exploratory analysis report.
  • A comprehensive analysis report (along with one major revision).
  • Active communication throughout the project.
  • Reproducible code to be shared and published alongside publications.

    *Funding waivers will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Division’s Executive Committee and evaluated based on feasibility, significance, relevance to grant funding, and/or potential for career development.

Types of support

• Grant Support:  The BBC provides support for study design (including clinical trial design and randomization plans), developing specific aims, data planning, writing budget justifications, sample size/power calculation, writing data analysis plans and completion of NIH reports. We require the proposed grant budgets sufficient FTE (Full Time Equivalent) for biostatistics and bioinformatics support for the lifetime of the grant. For smaller grants (K-level or equivalent), the BBC can provide advisory support and will write a letter to this effect.
• Protocol Support: The BBC provides support for writing protocols, statistical analysis plans (SAPs) for Investigational New Drug Applications (INDs) and the statistical section of the clinical study report (CSR) for New Drug Applications (NDAs) for regulatory purposes.
• Data Analysis: The BBC provides support for developing conference presentations and publishing peer reviewed manuscripts. We aim to support all quantitative aspects of such projects, including data processing and management, application of analytic methods that most suit the project, generation of detailed analysis reports with publication quality figures, writing methods sections of manuscripts and assistance responding for manuscript reviews. For abstracts, presentations, and manuscripts support, we follow CIDA’s interpretation of ICJME authorship guidelines.

A list of specific examples of how we can support your project includes:

• Biostatistics
  • Cross-sectional analysis
  • Multi-level modeling
  • Longitudinal analysis
  • Clustering analysis
  • Multivariate analysis
  • Machine Learning
  • Robust handling of missing data
• Bioinformatics
  • RNA-seq analysis
  • Whole-genome sequencing
  • Whole-exome sequencing
  • Single-cell sequencing
  • ChiP-seq
  • Functional genomics
  • Analysis and mining of publicly available data
  • Pathway Analysis
  • Network Analysis
  • Building custom bioinformatic pipelines

Additional Resources