Calling out the biostatisticians and numbers guys at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, CEO Candace Johnson on Tuesday detailed the importance of a new $6.2 million grant.
Johnson joined researchers and Congressman Brian Higgins to announce the five-year competitive grant from the national Beau Biden Moonshot Initiative at the National Cancer Institute to create a Data Management and Resource-Sharing Center at Roswell Park.
The center will allow Roswell Park to support and advance cancer research projects from around the nation who are part of the Immuno-Oncology Translational Network. The program will serve as a hub for 13 other Cancer Moonshot projects, providing coordination, administration, data integration and resource-sharing.
Johnson said knowing how to crunch the numbers and big data sets from around the country will help researchers figure out what they mean and how to use that knowledge to help patients.
“Sometimes the biostatisticians and bioinformatics folks, they’re the unsung heroes,” she said. “So this is a time for you guys to shine, the numbers folks. Mathematics rocks!”
The center will be led by four faculty members, including Dr. Kunle Odunsi, deputy director, who said the grant award serves as recognition of Roswell Park's expertise and years of work in the area of immunotherapy.
“Long before immunotherapy began to make headlines, we have been investing in this strategic direction,” he said. “We will serve as the guide and coordinating center for all of these leading academic centers. It’s a who’s who of cancer research centers — Harvard, Stanford, M.D. Anderson — and imagine that, the coordination is coming out of Western New York and Buffalo from Roswell Park.”
Odunsi also serves as co-chair of the center along with Alan Hutson, chair of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Roswell Park. The grant will also lead to the hiring of additional support staff, including programmers and software developers.
The grant follows a $19 million award through the federal Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) program announced last week to Roswell Park and the University of Rochester Medical Center to create the WNY Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco Products, the nation’s first program dedicated to the study of flavored tobacco.
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