Dr. Rachel Karchin, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Computational Medicine, has received funding for a new research project cooperative agreement from the Informatics Technology for Cancer Research Initiative (ITCR) of the National Cancer Institute. The mission of the ITCR is “to support innovative investigator-initiated research-driven informatics technology development to improve the acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of data and knowledge in the investigation and management of cancer.”

The grant, entitled “Informatics Tools for High-throughput Analysis of Cancer Mutations”, provides $839K for three years and will facilitate development of the Cancer-Related Analysis of VAriants Toolkit (CRAVAT), a web- and cloud-based service for high-throughput exploration of tumor sequencing results. CRAVAT analysis identifies mutations most likely to have deleterious impact on protein function and those that are most likely to confer a selective advantage to cancer cells (drivers), using classifiers developed by the Karchin team. The work will contribute to understanding of the genetic complexity and heterogeneity of tumors and assist in discovery of new approaches for cancer prognosis and treatment. This new funding will also further support the long-standing collaboration between the Karchin Lab and In Silico Solutions, a bioinformatics software company in Fairfax, VA.