January 2018

In October, the Center for Research Informatics and the Graham School MSc in Biomedical Informatics program jointly launched a new monthly speaker series, the Computational Life Science Seminar Series (CLSSS). The CLSSS was created to bring together researchers from all life sciences fields and offer a forum to highlight new research and foster collaborations. The format is flexible and sessions are open to faculty, students, and researchers throughout the University of Chicago community.

Thus far, the series has hosted speakers from the Center for Data Intensive Science to showcase data commons initiatives, as well as from the Research Computing Center to present their XROMM data management system (read a recap of this session here). The next seminar, scheduled for January 25, will present research currently underway in Jack Gilbert’s laboratory looking at how genomics of the microbiome might be connected to health and obesity outcomes. Register here, and join the mailing list to stay informed about future CLSSS sessions.

In a paper published in the January 5, 2018 issue of Science, a team of University of Chicago researchers led by Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, demonstrated a strong link between certain strains of human gut bacteria and success rates for immunotherapy treatments for advanced melanoma. 

The CRI’s Manager of Bioinformatics Riyue Bao, PhD, played a key role as coauthor of this paper. Riyue conducted bioinformatics analysis of microbiome and genomic data to explore the differences in the microbial environments of patients who did and did not respond to treatment, as well as integrating multiple types of microbial and genomics data to identify molecular alterations associated with clinical outcome. She also conducted statistical analysis of clinical data used in the study, developed new approaches for interpretation of the analysis results, and contributed to writing the paper.

The results of this study have the potential to improve cancer treatment by predicting which patients will respond well to certain therapies, as well as opening the door to probiotic treatments that could enhance the effects of immunotherapy drugs.

Read more about the study and the CRI’s contribution here.

The Graham School MSc in Biomedical Informatics program has partnered with online education company GetSmarter to offer an 8-week online course in Healthcare Informatics. CRI Director Sam Volchenboum serves as Course Convener, guiding the course design and teaching some of the modules alongside other University experts. The online course was developed in order to bring the University of Chicago’s expertise in healthcare informatics to a worldwide audience, preparing students to enter a field that is becoming more complex and demanding by the year as more and more healthcare data is made available to study. Learn more about why we’re offering this course here. The next session begins February 28.