Funding, Deals & Partnerships: BIOLOGICS & MEDICAL DEVICES; BioMed e-Series; Medicine and Life Sciences Scientific Journal – http://PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com
This session will provide information regarding methodologic and computational aspects of proteogenomic analysis of tumor samples, particularly in the context of clinical trials. Availability of comprehensive proteomic and matching genomic data for tumor samples characterized by the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program will be described, including data access procedures and informatic tools under development. Recent advances on mass spectrometry-based targeted assays for inclusion in clinical trials will also be discussed.
Amanda G Paulovich, Shankha Satpathy, Meenakshi Anurag, Bing Zhang, Steven A Carr
Methods and tools for comprehensive proteogenomic characterization of bulk tumor to needle core biopsies
Shankha Satpathy
TCGA has 11,000 cancers with >20,000 somatic alterations but only 128 proteins as proteomics was still young field
CPTAC is NCI proteomic effort
Chemical labeling approach now method of choice for quantitative proteomics
Looked at ovarian and breast cancers: to measure PTM like phosphorylated the sample preparation is critical
Data access and informatics tools for proteogenomics analysis
Bing Zhang
Raw and processed data (raw MS data) with linked clinical data can be extracted in CPTAC
Python scripts are available for bioinformatic programming
Pathways to clinical translation of mass spectrometry-based assays
Meenakshi Anurag
· Using kinase inhibitor pulldown (KIP) assay to identify unique kinome profiles
· Found single strand break repair defects in endometrial luminal cases, especially with immune checkpoint prognostic tumors
· Paper: JNCI 2019 analyzed 20,000 genes correlated with ET resistant in luminal B cases (selected for a list of 30 genes)
· Validated in METABRIC dataset
· KIP assay uses magnetic beads to pull out kinases to determine druggable kinases
· Looked in xenografts and was able to pull out differential kinomes
· Matched with PDX data so good clinical correlation
· Were able to detect ESR1 fusion correlated with ER+ tumors
The adoption of omic technologies in the cancer clinic is giving rise to an increasing number of large-scale high-dimensional datasets recording multiple aspects of the disease. This creates the need for frameworks for translatable discovery and learning from such data. Like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for the cancer lab, methods for the clinic need to (i) compare and integrate different data types; (ii) scale with data sizes; (iii) prove interpretable in terms of the known biology and batch effects underlying the data; and (iv) predict previously unknown experimentally verifiable mechanisms. Methods for the clinic, beyond the lab, also need to (v) produce accurate actionable recommendations; (vi) prove relevant to patient populations based upon small cohorts; and (vii) be validated in clinical trials. In this educational session we will present recent studies that demonstrate AI and ML translated to the cancer clinic, from prognosis and diagnosis to therapy.
NOTE: Dr. Fish’s talk is not eligible for CME credit to permit the free flow of information of the commercial interest employee participating.
Ron C. Anafi, Rick L. Stevens, Orly Alter, Guy Fish
Overview of AI approaches in cancer research and patient care
Rick L. Stevens
Deep learning is less likely to saturate as data increases
Deep learning attempts to learn multiple layers of information
The ultimate goal is prediction but this will be the greatest challenge for ML
ML models can integrate data validation and cross database validation
What limits the performance of cross validation is the internal noise of data (reproducibility)
Learning curves: not the more data but more reproducible data is important
Neural networks can outperform classical methods
Important to measure validation accuracy in training set. Class weighting can assist in development of data set for training set especially for unbalanced data sets
Discovering genome-scale predictors of survival and response to treatment with multi-tensor decompositions
Orly Alter
Finding patterns using SVD component analysis. Gene and SVD patterns match 1:1
Comparative spectral decompositions can be used for global datasets
Validation of CNV data using this strategy
Found Ras, Shh and Notch pathways with altered CNV in glioblastoma which correlated with prognosis
These predictors was significantly better than independent prognostic indicator like age of diagnosis
Identifying targets for cancer chronotherapy with unsupervised machine learning
Ron C. Anafi
Many clinicians have noticed that some patients do better when chemo is given at certain times of the day and felt there may be a circadian rhythm or chronotherapeutic effect with respect to side effects or with outcomes
ML used to determine if there is indeed this chronotherapy effect or can we use unstructured data to determine molecular rhythms?
Found a circadian transcription in human lung
Most dataset in cancer from one clinical trial so there might need to be more trials conducted to take into consideration circadian rhythms
Stratifying patients by live-cell biomarkers with random-forest decision trees
Stratifying patients by live-cell biomarkers with random-forest decision trees
Guy Fish CEO Cellanyx Diagnostics
Some clinicians feel we may be overdiagnosing and overtreating certain cancers, especially the indolent disease
This educational session focuses on the chronic wound healing, fibrosis, and cancer “triad.” It emphasizes the similarities and differences seen in these conditions and attempts to clarify why sustained fibrosis commonly supports tumorigenesis. Importance will be placed on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), vascularity, extracellular matrix (ECM), and chronic conditions like aging. Dr. Dvorak will provide an historical insight into the triad field focusing on the importance of vascular permeability. Dr. Stewart will explain how chronic inflammatory conditions, such as the aging tumor microenvironment (TME), drive cancer progression. The session will close with a review by Dr. Cukierman of the roles that CAFs and self-produced ECMs play in enabling the signaling reciprocity observed between fibrosis and cancer in solid epithelial cancers, such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Harold F Dvorak, Sheila A Stewart, Edna Cukierman
The importance of vascular permeability in tumor stroma generation and wound healing
Harold F Dvorak
Aging in the driver’s seat: Tumor progression and beyond
Sheila A Stewart
Why won’t CAFs stay normal?
Edna Cukierman
Tuesday, June 23
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
Other Articles on this Open Access Online Journal on Cancer Conferences and Conference Coverage in Real Time Include
Improving diagnostic yield in pediatric cancer precision medicine
Elaine R Mardis
Advent of genomics have revolutionized how we diagnose and treat lung cancer
We are currently needing to understand the driver mutations and variants where we can personalize therapy
PD-L1 and other checkpoint therapy have not really been used in pediatric cancers even though CAR-T have been successful
The incidence rates and mortality rates of pediatric cancers are rising
Large scale study of over 700 pediatric cancers show cancers driven by epigenetic drivers or fusion proteins. Need for transcriptomics. Also study demonstrated that we have underestimated germ line mutations and hereditary factors.
They put together a database to nominate patients on their IGM Cancer protocol. Involves genetic counseling and obtaining germ line samples to determine hereditary factors. RNA and protein are evaluated as well as exome sequencing. RNASeq and Archer Dx test to identify driver fusions
PECAN curated database from St. Jude used to determine driver mutations. They use multiple databases and overlap within these databases and knowledge base to determine or weed out false positives
They have used these studies to understand the immune infiltrate into recurrent cancers (CytoCure)
They found 40 germline cancer predisposition genes, 47 driver somatic fusion proteins, 81 potential actionable targets, 106 CNV, 196 meaningful somatic driver mutations
They are functioning well at NCI with respect to grant reviews, research, and general functions in spite of the COVID pandemic and the massive demonstrations on also focusing on the disparities which occur in cancer research field and cancer care
There are ongoing efforts at NCI to make a positive difference in racial injustice, diversity in the cancer workforce, and for patients as well
Need a diverse workforce across the cancer research and care spectrum
Data show that areas where the clinicians are successful in putting African Americans on clinical trials are areas (geographic and site specific) where health disparities are narrowing
Grants through NCI new SeroNet for COVID-19 serologic testing funded by two RFAs through NIAD (RFA-CA-30-038 and RFA-CA-20-039) and will close on July 22, 2020
Tuesday, June 23
12:45 PM – 1:46 PM EDT
Virtual Educational Session
Immunology, Tumor Biology, Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics, Molecular and Cellular Biology/Genetics
This educational session will update cancer researchers and clinicians about the latest developments in the detailed understanding of the types and roles of immune cells in tumors. It will summarize current knowledge about the types of T cells, natural killer cells, B cells, and myeloid cells in tumors and discuss current knowledge about the roles these cells play in the antitumor immune response. The session will feature some of the most promising up-and-coming cancer immunologists who will inform about their latest strategies to harness the immune system to promote more effective therapies.
Judith A Varner, Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta
Introduction
Judith A Varner
New techniques reveal critical roles of myeloid cells in tumor development and progression
Different type of cells are becoming targets for immune checkpoint like myeloid cells
In T cell excluded or desert tumors T cells are held at periphery so myeloid cells can infiltrate though so macrophages might be effective in these immune t cell naïve tumors, macrophages are most abundant types of immune cells in tumors
CXCLs are potential targets
PI3K delta inhibitors,
Reduce the infiltrate of myeloid tumor suppressor cells like macrophages
When should we give myeloid or T cell therapy is the issue
Judith A Varner
Novel strategies to harness T-cell biology for cancer therapy
Positive and negative roles of B cells in cancer
Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta
New approaches in cancer immunotherapy: Programming bacteria to induce systemic antitumor immunity
There are numerous examples of highly successful covalent drugs such as aspirin and penicillin that have been in use for a long period of time. Despite historical success, there was a period of reluctance among many to purse covalent drugs based on concerns about toxicity. With advances in understanding features of a well-designed covalent drug, new techniques to discover and characterize covalent inhibitors, and clinical success of new covalent cancer drugs in recent years, there is renewed interest in covalent compounds. This session will provide a broad look at covalent probe compounds and drug development, including a historical perspective, examination of warheads and electrophilic amino acids, the role of chemoproteomics, and case studies.
Benjamin F Cravatt, Richard A. Ward, Sara J Buhrlage
Discovering and optimizing covalent small-molecule ligands by chemical proteomics
Benjamin F Cravatt
Multiple approaches are being investigated to find new covalent inhibitors such as: 1) cysteine reactivity mapping, 2) mapping cysteine ligandability, 3) and functional screening in phenotypic assays for electrophilic compounds
Using fluorescent activity probes in proteomic screens; have broad useability in the proteome but can be specific
They screened quiescent versus stimulated T cells to determine reactive cysteines in a phenotypic screen and analyzed by MS proteomics (cysteine reactivity profiling); can quantitate 15000 to 20,000 reactive cysteines
Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and adapter protein LCP-1 are two examples of changes in reactive cysteines they have seen using this method
They use scout molecules to target ligands or proteins with reactive cysteines
For phenotypic screens they first use a cytotoxic assay to screen out toxic compounds which just kill cells without causing T cell activation (like IL10 secretion)
INTERESTINGLY coupling these MS reactive cysteine screens with phenotypic screens you can find NONCANONICAL mechanisms of many of these target proteins (many of the compounds found targets which were not predicted or known)
Electrophilic warheads and nucleophilic amino acids: A chemical and computational perspective on covalent modifier
The covalent targeting of cysteine residues in drug discovery and its application to the discovery of Osimertinib
Richard A. Ward
Cysteine activation: thiolate form of cysteine is a strong nucleophile
Thiolate form preferred in polar environment
Activation can be assisted by neighboring residues; pKA will have an effect on deprotonation
pKas of cysteine vary in EGFR
cysteine that are too reactive give toxicity while not reactive enough are ineffective
Accelerating drug discovery with lysine-targeted covalent probes
This Educational Session aims to guide discussion on the heterogeneous cells and metabolism in the tumor microenvironment. It is now clear that the diversity of cells in tumors each require distinct metabolic programs to survive and proliferate. Tumors, however, are genetically programmed for high rates of metabolism and can present a metabolically hostile environment in which nutrient competition and hypoxia can limit antitumor immunity.
Jeffrey C Rathmell, Lydia Lynch, Mara H Sherman, Greg M Delgoffe
T-cell metabolism and metabolic reprogramming antitumor immunity
Jeffrey C Rathmell
Introduction
Jeffrey C Rathmell
Metabolic functions of cancer-associated fibroblasts
Mara H Sherman
Tumor microenvironment metabolism and its effects on antitumor immunity and immunotherapeutic response
Greg M Delgoffe
Multiple metabolites, reactive oxygen species within the tumor microenvironment; is there heterogeneity within the TME metabolome which can predict their ability to be immunosensitive
Took melanoma cells and looked at metabolism using Seahorse (glycolysis): and there was vast heterogeneity in melanoma tumor cells; some just do oxphos and no glycolytic metabolism (inverse Warburg)
As they profiled whole tumors they could separate out the metabolism of each cell type within the tumor and could look at T cells versus stromal CAFs or tumor cells and characterized cells as indolent or metabolic
T cells from hyerglycolytic tumors were fine but from high glycolysis the T cells were more indolent
When knock down glucose transporter the cells become more glycolytic
If patient had high oxidative metabolism had low PDL1 sensitivity
Showed this result in head and neck cancer as well
Metformin a complex 1 inhibitor which is not as toxic as most mito oxphos inhibitors the T cells have less hypoxia and can remodel the TME and stimulate the immune response
Metformin now in clinical trials
T cells though seem metabolically restricted; T cells that infiltrate tumors are low mitochondrial phosph cells
T cells from tumors have defective mitochondria or little respiratory capacity
They have some preliminary findings that metabolic inhibitors may help with CAR-T therapy
Obesity, lipids and suppression of anti-tumor immunity
Lydia Lynch
Hypothesis: obesity causes issues with anti tumor immunity
Less NK cells in obese people; also produce less IFN gamma
RNASeq on NOD mice; granzymes and perforins at top of list of obese downregulated
Upregulated genes that were upregulated involved in lipid metabolism
All were PPAR target genes
NK cells from obese patients takes up palmitate and this reduces their glycolysis but OXPHOS also reduced; they think increased FFA basically overloads mitochondria
Long recognized for their role in cancer diagnosis and prognostication, pathologists are beginning to leverage a variety of digital imaging technologies and computational tools to improve both clinical practice and cancer research. Remarkably, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms for analyzing pathology specimens is poised to not only augment the resolution and accuracy of clinical diagnosis, but also fundamentally transform the role of the pathologist in cancer science and precision oncology. This session will discuss what pathologists are currently able to achieve with these new technologies, present their challenges and barriers, and overview their future possibilities in cancer diagnosis and research. The session will also include discussions of what is practical and doable in the clinic for diagnostic and clinical oncology in comparison to technologies and approaches primarily utilized to accelerate cancer research.
Jorge S Reis-Filho, Thomas J Fuchs, David L Rimm, Jayanta Debnath
Using old methods and new methods; so cell counting you use to find the cells then phenotype; with quantification like with Aqua use densitometry of positive signal to determine a threshold to determine presence of a cell for counting
Hiplex versus multiplex imaging where you have ten channels to measure by cycling of flour on antibody (can get up to 20plex)
Hiplex can be coupled with Mass spectrometry (Imaging Mass spectrometry, based on heavy metal tags on mAbs)
However it will still take a trained pathologist to define regions of interest or field of desired view
Introduction
Jayanta Debnath
Challenges and barriers of implementing AI tools for cancer diagnostics
Jorge S Reis-Filho
Implementing robust digital pathology workflows into clinical practice and cancer research
Jayanta Debnath
Invited Speaker
Thomas J Fuchs
Founder of spinout of Memorial Sloan Kettering
Separates AI from computational algothimic
Dealing with not just machines but integrating human intelligence
Making decision for the patients must involve human decision making as well
How do we get experts to do these decisions faster
AI in pathology: what is difficult? =è sandbox scenarios where machines are great,; curated datasets; human decision support systems or maps; or try to predict nature
1) learn rules made by humans; human to human scenario 2)constrained nature 3)unconstrained nature like images and or behavior 4) predict nature response to nature response to itself
In sandbox scenario the rules are set in stone and machines are great like chess playing
In second scenario can train computer to predict what a human would predict
So third scenario is like driving cars
System on constrained nature or constrained dataset will take a long time for commuter to get to decision
Fourth category is long term data collection project
He is finding it is still finding it is still is difficult to predict nature so going from clinical finding to prognosis still does not have good predictability with AI alone; need for human involvement
End to end partnering (EPL) is a new way where humans can get more involved with the algorithm and assist with the problem of constrained data
An example of a workflow for pathology would be as follows from Campanella et al 2019 Nature Medicine: obtain digital images (they digitized a million slides), train a massive data set with highthroughput computing (needed a lot of time and big software developing effort), and then train it using input be the best expert pathologists (nature to human and unconstrained because no data curation done)
Led to first clinically grade machine learning system (Camelyon16 was the challenge for detecting metastatic cells in lymph tissue; tested on 12,000 patients from 45 countries)
The first big hurdle was moving from manually annotated slides (which was a big bottleneck) to automatically extracted data from path reports).
Now problem is in prediction: How can we bridge the gap from predicting humans to predicting nature?
With an AI system pathologist drastically improved the ability to detect very small lesions
Incidence rates of several cancers (e.g., colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancers) are rising in younger populations, which contrasts with either declining or more slowly rising incidence in older populations. Early-onset cancers are also more aggressive and have different tumor characteristics than those in older populations. Evidence on risk factors and contributors to early-onset cancers is emerging. In this Educational Session, the trends and burden, potential causes, risk factors, and tumor characteristics of early-onset cancers will be covered. Presenters will focus on colorectal and breast cancer, which are among the most common causes of cancer deaths in younger people. Potential mechanisms of early-onset cancers and racial/ethnic differences will also be discussed.
Stacey A. Fedewa, Xavier Llor, Pepper Jo Schedin, Yin Cao
Cancers that are and are not increasing in younger populations
Stacey A. Fedewa
Early onset cancers, pediatric cancers and colon cancers are increasing in younger adults
Younger people are more likely to be uninsured and these are there most productive years so it is a horrible life event for a young adult to be diagnosed with cancer. They will have more financial hardship and most (70%) of the young adults with cancer have had financial difficulties. It is very hard for women as they are on their childbearing years so additional stress
Types of early onset cancer varies by age as well as geographic locations. For example in 20s thyroid cancer is more common but in 30s it is breast cancer. Colorectal and testicular most common in US.
SCC is decreasing by adenocarcinoma of the cervix is increasing in women’s 40s, potentially due to changing sexual behaviors
Breast cancer is increasing in younger women: maybe etiologic distinct like triple negative and larger racial disparities in younger African American women
Increased obesity among younger people is becoming a factor in this increasing incidence of early onset cancers
Other Articles on this Open Access Online Journal on Cancer Conferences and Conference Coverage in Real Time Include
IBM Releases Novel AI-Powered Technologies to Help Health and Research Community Accelerate the Discovery of Medical Insights and Treatments for COVID-19
IBM Research has been actively developing new cloud and AI-powered technologies that can help researchers across a variety of scientific disciplines accelerate the process of discovery. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, we continue to ask how these technologies and our scientific knowledge can help in the global battle against coronavirus.
Today, we are making available multiple novel, free resources from across IBM to help healthcare researchers, doctors and scientists around the world accelerate COVID-19 drug discovery: from gathering insights, to applying the latest virus genomic information and identifying potential targets for treatments, to creating new drug molecule candidates.
Though some of the resources are still in exploratory stages, IBM is making them available to qualifying researchers at no charge to aid the international scientific investigation of COVID-19.
Healthcare agencies and governments around the world have quickly amassed medical and other relevant data about the pandemic. And, there are already vast troves of medical research that could prove relevant to COVID-19. Yet, as with any large volume of disparate data sources, it is difficult to efficiently aggregate and analyze that data in ways that can yield scientific insights.
To help researchers access structured and unstructured data quickly, we are offering a cloud-based AI research resource that has been trained on a corpus of thousands of scientific papers contained in the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), prepared by the White House and a coalition of research groups, and licensed databases from the DrugBank, Clinicaltrials.gov and GenBank. This tool uses our advanced AI and allows researchers to pose specific queries to the collections of papers and to extract critical COVID-19 knowledge quickly. Please note, access to this resource will be granted only to qualified researchers. To learn more and request access, please click here.
Aiding the Hunt for Treatments
The traditional drug discovery pipeline relies on a library of compounds that are screened, improved, and tested to determine safety and efficacy. In dealing with new pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, there is the potential to enhance the compound libraries with additional novel compounds. To help address this need, IBM Research has recently created a new, AI-generative framework which can rapidly identify novel peptides, proteins, drug candidates and materials.
We have applied this AI technology against three COVID-19 targets to identify 3,000 new small molecules as potential COVID-19 therapeutic candidates. IBM is releasing these molecules under an open license, and researchers can study them via a new interactive molecular explorer tool to understand their characteristics and relationship to COVID-19 and identify candidates that might have desirable properties to be further pursued in drug development.
To streamline efforts to identify new treatments for COVID-19, we are also making the IBM Functional Genomics Platform available for free for the duration of the pandemic. Built to discover the molecular features in viral and bacterial genomes, this cloud-based repository and research tool includes genes, proteins and other molecular targets from sequenced viral and bacterial organisms in one place with connections pre-computed to help accelerate discovery of molecular targets required for drug design, test development and treatment.
Select IBM collaborators from government agencies, academic institutions and other organizations already use this platform for bacterial genomic study. And now, those working on COVID-19 can request the IBM Functional Genomics Platform interface to explore the genomic features of the virus. Access to the IBM Functional Genomics Platform will be prioritized for those conducting COVID-19 research. To learn more and request access, please click here.
Drug and Disease Information
Clinicians and healthcare professionals on the frontlines of care will also have free access to hundreds of pieces of evidence-based, curated COVID-19 and infectious disease content from IBM Micromedex and EBSCO DynaMed. Using these two rich decision support solutions, users will have access to drug and disease information in a single and comprehensive search. Clinicians can also provide patients with consumer-friendly patient education handouts with relevant, actionable medical information. IBM Micromedex is one of the largest online reference databases for medication information and is used by more than 4,500 hospitals and health systems worldwide. EBSCO DynaMed provides peer-reviewed clinical content, including systematic literature reviews in 28 specialties for comprehensive disease topics, health conditions and abnormal findings, to highly focused topics on evaluation, differential diagnosis and management.
The scientific community is working hard to make important new discoveries relevant to the treatment of COVID-19, and we’re hopeful that releasing these novel tools will help accelerate this global effort. This work also outlines our long-term vision for the future of accelerated discovery, where multi-disciplinary scientists and clinicians work together to rapidly and effectively create next generation therapeutics, aided by novel AI-powered technologies.
Grant will allow company to accelerate access to its AI solutions and use of ultrasound in COVID-19 emergency settings
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — DiA Imaging Analysis, a leading provider of AI based ultrasound analysis solutions, today announced that it has received a government grant from the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to develop solutions for ultrasound imaging analysis of COVID-19 patients using Artificial Intelligence (AI).Using ultrasound in point of care emergency settings has gained momentum since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In these settings, which include makeshift hospital COVID-19 departments and triage “tents,” portable ultrasound offers clinicians diagnostic decision support, with the added advantage of being easier to disinfect and eliminating the need to transport patients from one room to another.However, analyzing ultrasound images is a process that it is still mostly done visually, leading to a growing market need for automated solutions and decision support.As the leading provider of AI solutions for ultrasound analysis and backed by Connecticut Innovations, DiA makes ultrasound analysis smarter and accessible to both new and expert ultrasound users with various levels of experience. The company’s flagship LVivo Cardio Toolbox for AI-based cardiac ultrasound analysis enables clinicians to automatically generate objective clinical analysis, with increased accuracy and efficiency to support decisions about patient treatment and care.
The IIA grant provides a budget of millions NIS to increase access to DiA’s solutions for users in Israel and globally, and accelerate R&D with a focus on new AI solutions for COVID-19 patient management. DiA solutions are vendor-neutral and platform agnostic, as well as powered to run in low processing, mobile environments like handheld ultrasound.Recent data highlights the importance of looking at the heart during the progression of COVID-19, with one study citing 20% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showing signs of heart damage and increased mortality rates in those patients. DiA’s LVivo cardiac analysis solutions automatically generate objective, quantified cardiac ultrasound results to enable point-of-care clinicians to assess cardiac function on the spot, near patients’ bedside.
According to Dr. Ami Applebaum, the Chairman of the Board of the IIA, “The purpose of IIA’s call was to bring solutions to global markets for fighting COVID-19, with an emphasis on relevancy, fast time to market and collaborations promising continuity of the Israeli economy. DiA meets these requirements with AI innovation for ultrasound.”DiA has received several FDA/CE clearances and established distribution partnerships with industry leading companies including GE Healthcare, IBM Watson and Konica Minolta, currently serving thousands of end users worldwide.”We see growing use of ultrasound in point of care settings, and an urgent need for automated, objective solutions that provide decision support in real time,” said Hila Goldman-Aslan, CEO and Co-founder of DiA Imaging Analysis, “Our AI solutions meet this need by immediately helping clinicians on the frontlines to quickly and easily assess COVID-19 patients’ hearts to help guide care delivery.”
About DiA Imaging Analysis:
DiA Imaging Analysis provides advanced AI-based ultrasound analysis technology that makes ultrasound accessible to all. DiA’s automated tools deliver fast and accurate clinical indications to support the decision-making process and offer better patient care. DiA’s AI-based technology uses advanced pattern recognition and machine-learning algorithms to automatically imitate the way the human eye detects image borders and identifies motion. Using DiA’s tools provides automated and objective AI tools, helps reduce variability among users, and increases efficiency. It allows clinicians with various levels of experience to quickly and easily analyze ultrasound images.
Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 27, 2020 Minisymposium on AACR Project Genie & Bioinformatics 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
April 27, 2020, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Virtual Meeting: All Session Times Are U.S. EDT
Session Type
Virtual Minisymposium
Track(s)
Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
17 Presentations
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
– Chairperson Gregory J. Riely. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
4:00 PM – 4:01 PM
– Introduction Gregory J. Riely. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Precision medicine requires an end-to-end learning healthcare system, wherein the treatment decisions for patients are informed by the prior experiences of similar patients. Oncology is currently leading the way in precision medicine because the genomic and other molecular characteristics of patients and their tumors are routinely collected at scale. A major challenge to realizing the promise of precision medicine is that no single institution is able to sequence and treat sufficient numbers of patients to improve clinical-decision making independently. To overcome this challenge, the AACR launched Project GENIE (Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange).
AACR Project GENIE is a publicly accessible international cancer registry of real-world data assembled through data sharing between 19 of the leading cancer centers in the world. Through the efforts of strategic partners Sage Bionetworks (https://sagebionetworks.org) and cBioPortal (www.cbioportal.org), the registry aggregates, harmonizes, and links clinical-grade, next-generation cancer genomic sequencing data with clinical outcomes obtained during routine medical practice from cancer patients treated at these institutions. The consortium and its activities are driven by openness, transparency, and inclusion, ensuring that the project output remains accessible to the global cancer research community for the benefit of all patients.AACR Project GENIE fulfills an unmet need in oncology by providing the statistical power necessary to improve clinical decision-making, particularly in the case of rare cancers and rare variants in common cancers. Additionally, the registry can power novel clinical and translational research.
Because we collect data from nearly every patient sequenced at participating institutions and have committed to sharing only clinical-grade data, the GENIE registry contains enough high-quality data to power decision making on rare cancers or rare variants in common cancers. We see the GENIE data providing another knowledge turn in the virtuous cycle of research, accelerating the pace of drug discovery, improving the clinical trial design, and ultimately benefiting cancer patients globally.
The first set of cancer genomic data aggregated through AACR Project Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) was available to the global community in January 2017. The seventh data set, GENIE 7.0-public, was released in January 2020 adding more than 9,000 records to the database. The combined data set now includes nearly 80,000 de-identified genomic records collected from patients who were treated at each of the consortium’s participating institutions, making it among the largest fully public cancer genomic data sets released to date. These data will be released to the public every six months. The public release of the eighth data set, GENIE 8.0-public, will take place in July 2020.
The combined data set now includes data for over 80 major cancer types, including data from greater than 12,500 patients with lung cancer, nearly 11,000 patients with breast cancer, and nearly 8,000 patients with colorectal cancer.
For more details about the data, analyses, and summaries of the data attributes from this release, GENIE 7.0-public, consult the data guide.
Users can access the data directly via cbioportal, or download the data directly from Sage Bionetworks. Users will need to create an account for either site and agree to the terms of access.
For frequently asked questions, visit our FAQ page.
In fall of 2019 AACR announced the Bio Collaborative which collected pan cancer data in conjuction and collaboration and support by a host of big pharma and biotech companies
they have a goal to expand to more than 6 cancer types and more than 50,000 records including smoking habits, lifestyle data etc
They have started with NSCLC have have done mutational analysis on these
included is tumor mutational burden and using cbioportal able to explore genomic data even further
treatment data is included as well
need to collect highly CURATED data with PRISM backbone to get more than outcome data, like progression data
they might look to incorporate digital pathology but they are not there yet; will need good artificial intelligence systems
4:01 PM – 4:15 PM
– Invited Speaker Gregory J. Riely. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
4:15 PM – 4:20 PM
– Discussion
4:20 PM – 4:30 PM
1092 – A systematic analysis of BRAF mutations and their sensitivity to different BRAF inhibitors: Zohar Barbash, Dikla Haham, Liat Hafzadi, Ron Zipor, Shaul Barth, Arie Aizenman, Lior Zimmerman, Gabi Tarcic. Novellusdx, Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract: The MAPK-ERK signaling cascade is among the most frequently mutated pathways in human cancer, with the BRAF V600 mutation being the most common alteration. FDA-approved BRAF inhibitors as well as combination therapies of BRAF and MEK inhibitors are available and provide survival benefits to patients with a BRAF V600 mutation in several indications. Yet non-V600 BRAF mutations are found in many cancers and are even more prevalent than V600 mutations in certain tumor types. As the use of NGS profiling in precision oncology is becoming more common, novel alterations in BRAF are being uncovered. This has led to the classification of BRAF mutations, which is dependent on its biochemical properties and affects it sensitivity to inhibitors. Therefore, annotation of these novel variants is crucial for assigning correct treatment. Using a high throughput method for functional annotation of MAPK activity, we profiled 151 different BRAF mutations identified in the AACR Project GENIE dataset, and their response to 4 different BRAF inhibitors- vemurafenib and 3 different exploratory 2nd generation inhibitors. The system is based on rapid synthesis of the mutations and expression of the mutated protein together with fluorescently labeled reporters in a cell-based assay. Our results show that from the 151 different BRAF mutations, ~25% were found to activate the MAPK pathway. All of the class 1 and 2 mutations tested were found to be active, providing positive validation for the method. Additionally, many novel activating mutations were identified, some outside of the known domains. When testing the response of the active mutations to different classes of BRAF inhibitors, we show that while vemurafenib efficiently inhibited V600 mutations, other types of mutations and specifically BRAF fusions were not inhibited by this drug. Alternatively, the second-generation experimental inhibitors were effective against both V600 as well as non-V600 mutations.Using this large-scale approach to characterize BRAF mutations, we were able to functionally annotate the largest number of BRAF mutations to date. Our results show that the number of activating variants is large and that they possess differential sensitivity to different types of direct inhibitors. This data can serve as a basis for rational drug design as well as more accurate treatment options for patients.
Molecular profiling is becoming imperative for successful targeted therapies
500 unique mutations in BRAF so need to use bioinformatic pipeline; start with NGS panels then cluster according to different subtypes or class specific patterns
certain mutation like V600E mutations have distinct clustering in tumor types
25% of mutations occur with other mutations; mutations may not be functional; they used highthruput system to analyze other V600 braf mutations to determine if functional
active yet uncharacterized BRAF mutations seen in a major proportion of human tumors
using genomic drug data found that many inhibitors like verafanib are specific to a specific mutation but other inhibitors that are not specific to a cleft can inhibit other BRAF mutants
40% of 135 mutants were functionally active
USE of Functional Profiling instead of just genomic profiling
Q?: They have already used this platform and analysis for RTKs and other genes as well successfully
Q? how do you deal with co reccuring mutations: platform is able to do RTK plus signaling protiens
4:30 PM – 4:35 PM
– Discussion
4:35 PM – 4:45 PM
1093 – Calibration Tool for Genomic Aggregates (CTGA): A deep learning framework for calibrating somatic mutation profiling data from conventional gene panel data. Jordan Anaya, Craig Cummings, Jocelyn Lee, Alexander Baras. Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, MD, Genentech, Inc., CA, AACR, Philadelphia, PA
Abstract: It has been suggested that aggregate genomic measures such as mutational burden can be associated with response to immunotherapy. Arguably, the gold standard for deriving such aggregate genomic measures (AGMs) would be from exome level sequencing. While many clinical trials run exome level sequencing, the vast majority of routine genomic testing performed today, as seen in AACR Project GENIE, is targeted / gene-panel based sequencing.
Despite the smaller size of these gene panels focused on clinically targetable alterations, it has been shown they can estimate, to some degree, exomic mutational burden; usually by normalizing mutation count by the relevant size of the panels. These smaller gene panels exhibit significant variability both in terms of accuracy relative to exomic measures and in comparison to other gene panels. While many genes are common to the panels in AACR Project GENIE, hundreds are not. These differences in extent of coverage and genomic loci examined can result in biases that may negatively impact panel to panel comparability.
To address these issues we developed a deep learning framework to model exomic AGMs, such as mutational burden, from gene panel data as seen in AACR Project GENIE. This framework can leverage any available sample and variant level information, in which variants are featurized to effectively re-weight their importance when estimating a given AGM, such as mutational burden, through the use of multiple instance learning techniques in this form of weakly supervised data.
Using TCGA data in conjunction with AACR Project GENIE gene panel definitions, as a proof of concept, we first applied this framework to learn expected variant features such as codons and genomic position from mutational data (greater than 99.9% accuracy observed). Having established the validity of the approach, we then applied this framework to somatic mutation profiling data in which we show that data from gene panels can be calibrated to exomic TMB and thereby improve panel to panel compatibility. We observed approximately 25% improvements in mean squared error and R-squared metrics when using our framework over conventional approaches to estimate TMB from gene panel data across the 9 tumors types examined (spanning melanoma, lung cancer, colon cancer, and others). This work highlights the application of sophisticated machine learning approaches towards the development of needed calibration techniques across seemingly disparate gene panel assays used clinically today.
4:45 PM – 4:50 PM
– Discussion
4:50 PM – 5:00 PM
1094 – Genetic determinants of EGFR-driven lung cancer growth and therapeutic response in vivoGiorgia Foggetti, Chuan Li, Hongchen Cai, Wen-Yang Lin, Deborah Ayeni, Katherine Hastings, Laura Andrejka, Dylan Maghini, Robert Homer, Dmitri A. Petrov, Monte M. Winslow, Katerina Politi. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
5:00 PM – 5:05 PM
– Discussion
5:05 PM – 5:15 PM
1095 – Comprehensive pan-cancer analyses of RAS genomic diversityRobert Scharpf, Gregory Riely, Mark Awad, Michele Lenoue-Newton, Biagio Ricciuti, Julia Rudolph, Leon Raskin, Andrew Park, Jocelyn Lee, Christine Lovly, Valsamo Anagnostou. Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN, Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, AACR, Philadelphia, PA
5:15 PM – 5:20 PM
– Discussion
5:20 PM – 5:30 PM
1096 – Harmonization standards from the Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium. Alex H. Wagner, Reece K. Hart, Larry Babb, Robert R. Freimuth, Adam Coffman, Yonghao Liang, Beth Pitel, Angshumoy Roy, Matthew Brush, Jennifer Lee, Anna Lu, Thomas Coard, Shruti Rao, Deborah Ritter, Brian Walsh, Susan Mockus, Peter Horak, Ian King, Dmitriy Sonkin, Subha Madhavan, Gordana Raca, Debyani Chakravarty, Malachi Griffith, Obi L. Griffith. Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, Reece Hart Consulting, CA, Broad Institute, Boston, MA, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, CT, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Abstract: The use of clinical gene sequencing is now commonplace, and genome analysts and molecular pathologists are often tasked with the labor-intensive process of interpreting the clinical significance of large numbers of tumor variants. Numerous independent knowledge bases have been constructed to alleviate this manual burden, however these knowledgebases are non-interoperable. As a result, the analyst is left with a difficult tradeoff: for each knowledgebase used the analyst must understand the nuances particular to that resource and integrate its evidence accordingly when generating the clinical report, but for each knowledgebase omitted there is increased potential for missed findings of clinical significance.The Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC; cancervariants.org) was formed as a driver project of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH; ga4gh.org) to address this concern. VICC members include representatives from several major somatic interpretation knowledgebases including CIViC, OncoKB, Jax-CKB, the Weill Cornell PMKB, the IRB-Barcelona Cancer Biomarkers Database, and others. Previously, the VICC built and reported on a harmonized meta-knowledgebase of 19,551 biomarker associations of harmonized variants, diseases, drugs, and evidence across the constituent resources.In that study, we analyzed the frequency with which the tumor samples from the AACR Project GENIE cohort would match to harmonized associations. Variant matches increased dramatically from 57% to 86% when broader matching to regions describing categorical variants were allowed. Unlike precise sequence variants with specified alternate alleles, categorical variants describe a collection of potential variants with a common feature, such as “V600” (non-valine alleles at the 600 residue), “Exon 20 mutations” (all non-silent mutations in exon 20), or “Gain-of-function” (hypermorphic alterations that activate or amplify gene activity). However, matching observed sequence variants to categorical variants is challenging, as the latter are typically only described as unstructured text. Here we describe the expressive and computational GA4GH Variation Representation specification (vr-spec.readthedocs.io), which we co-developed as members of the GA4GH Genomic Knowledge Standards work stream. This specification provides a schema for common, precise forms of variation (e.g. SNVs and Indels) and the method for computing identifiers from these objects. We highlight key aspects of the specification and our work to apply it to the characterization of categorical variation, showcasing the variant terminology and classification tools developed by the VICC to support this effort. These standards and tools are free, open-source, and extensible, overcoming barriers to standardized variant knowledge sharing and search.
store information from different databases by curating them and classifying them then harmonizing them into values
harmonize each variant across their knowledgebase; at any level of evidence
had 29% of patients variants that matched when compare across many knowledgebase databases versus only 13% when using individual databases
they are also trying to curate the database so a variant will have one code instead of various refseq codes or protein codes
VIC is an open consortium
5:30 PM – 5:35 PM
– Discussion
5:35 PM – 5:45 PM
1097 – FGFR2 in-frame indels: A novel targetable alteration in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Yvonne Y. Li, James M. Cleary, Srivatsan Raghavan, Liam F. Spurr, Qibiao Wu, Lei Shi, Lauren K. Brais, Maureen Loftus, Lipika Goyal, Anuj K. Patel, Atul B. Shinagare, Thomas E. Clancy, Geoffrey Shapiro, Ethan Cerami, William R. Sellers, William C. Hahn, Matthew Meyerson, Nabeel Bardeesy, Andrew D. Cherniack, Brian M. Wolpin. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
5:45 PM – 5:50 PM
– Discussion
5:50 PM – 6:00 PM
– Closing RemarksGregory J. Riely. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Personalized Medicine, Omics, and Health Disparities in Cancer: Can Personalized Medicine Help Reduce the Disparity Problem?
Curator: Stephen J. Williams, PhD
In a Science Perspectives article by Timothy Rebbeck, health disparities, specifically cancer disparities existing in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations, highlighting the cancer incidence disparities which exist compared with cancer incidence in high income areas of the world [1]. The sub-Saharan African nations display a much higher incidence of prostate, breast, and cervix cancer and these cancers are predicted to double within the next twenty years, according to IARC[2]. Most importantly,
the histopathologic and demographic features of these tumors differ from those in high-income countries
meaning that the differences seen in incidence may reflect a true health disparity as increases rates in these cancers are not seen in high income countries (HIC).
Most frequent male cancers in SSA include prostate, lung, liver, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Kaposi’s sarcoma (a cancer frequently seen in HIV infected patients [3]). In SSA women, breast and cervical cancer are the most common and these display higher rates than seen in high income countries. In fact, liver cancer is seen in SSA females at twice the rate, and in SSA males almost three times the rate as in high income countries.
Reasons for cancer disparity in SSA
Patients with cancer are often diagnosed at a late stage in SSA countries. This contrasts with patients from high income countries, which have their cancers usually diagnosed at an earlier stage, and with many cancers, like breast[4], ovarian[5, 6], and colon, detecting the tumor in the early stages is critical for a favorable outcome and prognosis[7-10]. In addition, late diagnosis also limits many therapeutic options for the cancer patient and diseases at later stages are much harder to manage, especially with respect to unresponsiveness and/or resistance of many therapies. In addition, treatments have to be performed in low-resource settings in SSA, and availability of clinical lab work and imaging technologies may be limited.
Molecular differences in SSA versus HIC cancers which may account for disparities
Emerging evidence suggests that there are distinct molecular signatures with SSA tumors with respect to histotype and pathology. For example Dr. Rebbeck mentions that Nigerian breast cancers were defined by increased mutational signatures associated with deficiency of the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway, pervasive mutations in the tumor suppressor gene TP53, mutations in GATA binding protein 3 (GATA3), and greater mutational burden, compared with breast tumors from African Americans or Caucasians[11]. However more research will be required to understand the etiology and causal factors related to this molecular distinction in mutational spectra.
It is believed that there is a higher rate of hereditary cancers in SSA. And many SSA cancers exhibit the more aggressive phenotype than in other parts of the world. For example breast tumors in SSA black cases are twice as likely than SSA Caucasian cases to be of the triple negative phenotype, which is generally more aggressive and tougher to detect and treat, as triple negative cancers are HER2 negative and therefore are not a candidate for Herceptin. Also BRCA1/2 mutations are more frequent in black SSA cases than in Caucasian SSA cases [12, 13].
Initiatives to Combat Health Disparities in SSA
Multiple initiatives are being proposed or in action to bring personalized medicine to the sub-Saharan African nations. These include:
H3Africa empowers African researchers to be competitive in genomic sciences, establishes and nurtures effective collaborations among African researchers on the African continent, and generates unique data that could be used to improve both African and global health.
There is currently a global effort to apply genomic science and associated technologies to further the understanding of health and disease in diverse populations. These efforts work to identify individuals and populations who are at risk for developing specific diseases, and to better understand underlying genetic and environmental contributions to that risk. Given the large amount of genetic diversity on the African continent, there exists an enormous opportunity to utilize such approaches to benefit African populations and to inform global health.
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) consortium facilitates fundamental research into diseases on the African continent while also developing infrastructure, resources, training, and ethical guidelines to support a sustainable African research enterprise – led by African scientists, for the African people. The initiative consists of 51 African projects that include population-based genomic studies of common, non-communicable disorders such as heart and renal disease, as well as communicable diseases such as tuberculosis. These studies are led by African scientists and use genetic, clinical, and epidemiologic methods to identify hereditary and environmental contributions to health and disease. To establish a foundation for African scientists to continue this essential work into the future work, the consortium also supports many crucial capacity building elements, such as: ethical, legal, and social implications research; training and capacity building for bioinformatics; capacity for biobanking; and coordination and networking.
Advancing precision medicine in a way that is equitable and beneficial to society means ensuring that healthcare systems can adopt the most scientifically and technologically appropriate approaches to a more targeted and personalized way of diagnosing and treating disease. In certain instances, countries or institutions may be able to bypass, or “leapfrog”, legacy systems or approaches that prevail in developed country contexts.
The World Economic Forum’s Leapfrogging with Precision Medicine project will develop a set of tools and case studies demonstrating how a precision medicine approach in countries with greenfield policy spaces can potentially transform their healthcare delivery and outcomes. Policies and governance mechanisms that enable leapfrogging will be iterated and scaled up to other projects.
Successes in personalized genomic research in SSA
As Dr. Rebbeck states:
Because of the underlying genetic and genomic relationships between Africans and members of the African diaspora (primarily in North America and Europe), knowledge gained from research in SSA can be used to address health disparities that are prevalent in members of the African diaspora.
For example members of the West African heritage and genomic ancestry has been reported to confer the highest genomic risk for prostate cancer in any worldwide population [14].
Science 03 Jan 2020:
Vol. 367, Issue 6473, pp. 27-28
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay474
Summary/Abstract
Cancer is an increasing global public health burden. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); high rates of cancer—particularly of the prostate, breast, and cervix—characterize cancer in most countries in SSA. The number of these cancers in SSA is predicted to more than double in the next 20 years (1). Both the explanations for these increasing rates and the solutions to address this cancer epidemic require SSA-specific data and approaches. The histopathologic and demographic features of these tumors differ from those in high-income countries (HICs). Basic knowledge of the epidemiology, clinical features, and molecular characteristics of cancers in SSA is needed to build prevention and treatment tools that will address the future cancer burden. The distinct distribution and determinants of cancer in SSA provide an opportunity to generate knowledge about cancer risk factors, genomics, and opportunities for prevention and treatment globally, not only in Africa.
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Zheng Y, Walsh T, Gulsuner S, Casadei S, Lee MK, Ogundiran TO, Ademola A, Falusi AG, Adebamowo CA, Oluwasola AO et al: Inherited Breast Cancer in Nigerian Women. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2018, 36(28):2820-2825.
Rebbeck TR, Friebel TM, Friedman E, Hamann U, Huo D, Kwong A, Olah E, Olopade OI, Solano AR, Teo SH et al: Mutational spectrum in a worldwide study of 29,700 families with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. Human mutation 2018, 39(5):593-620.
Lachance J, Berens AJ, Hansen MEB, Teng AK, Tishkoff SA, Rebbeck TR: Genetic Hitchhiking and Population Bottlenecks Contribute to Prostate Cancer Disparities in Men of African Descent. Cancer research 2018, 78(9):2432-2443.
Other articles on Cancer Health Disparities and Genomics on this Online Open Access Journal Include:
AI Acquisitions by Big Tech Firms Are Happening at a Blistering Pace: 2019 Recent Data by CBI Insights
Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.
Recent report from CBI Insights shows the rapid pace at which the biggest tech firms (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon) are acquiring artificial intelligence (AI) startups, potentially confounding the AI talent shortage that exists.
The usual suspects are leading the race for AI: tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, & Apple (FAMGA) have all been aggressively acquiring AI startups in the last decade.
Among the FAMGA companies, Apple leads the way, making 20 total AI acquisitions since 2010. It is followed by Google (the frontrunner from 2012 to 2016) with 14 acquisitions and Microsoft with 10.
Apple’s AI acquisition spree, which has helped it overtake Google in recent years, was essential to the development of new iPhone features. For example, FaceID, the technology that allows users to unlock their iPhone X just by looking at it, stems from Apple’s M&A moves in chips and computer vision, including the acquisition of AI company RealFace.
In fact, many of FAMGA’s prominent products and services came out of acquisitions of AI companies — such as Apple’s Siri, or Google’s contributions to healthcare through DeepMind.
That said, tech giants are far from the only companies snatching up AI startups.
Since 2010, there have been 635 AI acquisitions, as companies aim to build out their AI capabilities and capture sought-after talent (as of 8/31/2019).
The pace of these acquisitions has also been increasing. AI acquisitions saw a more than 6x uptick from 2013 to 2018, including last year’s record of 166 AI acquisitions — up 38% year-over-year.
In 2019, there have already been 140+ acquisitions (as of August), putting the year on track to beat the 2018 record at the current run rate.
Part of this increase in the pace of AI acquisitions can be attributed to a growing diversity in acquirers. Where once AI was the exclusive territory of major tech companies, today, smaller AI startups are becoming acquisition targets for traditional insurance, retail, and healthcare incumbents.
For example, in February 2018, Roche Holding acquired New York-based cancer startup Flatiron Health for $1.9B — one of the largest M&A deals in artificial intelligence.This year, Nike acquired AI-powered inventory management startup Celect, Uber acquired computer vision company Mighty AI, and McDonald’s acquired personalization platform Dynamic Yield.
Despite the increased number of acquirers, however, tech giants are still leading the charge. Acquisitive tech giants have emerged as powerful global corporations with a competitive advantage in artificial intelligence, and startups have played a pivotal role in helping these companies scale their AI initiatives.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, and Amazon are the most active acquirers of AI startups, each acquiring 7+companies.
To read more on recent Acquisitions in the AI space please see the following articles on this Open Access Online Journal
Core member and chair of the faculty, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; director, Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; professor of biology, MIT; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; founding co-chair, Human Cell Atlas.
millions of genome variants, tens of thousands of disease-associated genes, thousands of cell types and an almost unimaginable number of ways they can combine, we had to approximate a best starting point—choose one target, guess the cell, simplify the experiment.
In 2020, advances in polygenic risk scores, in understanding the cell and modules of action of genes through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and in predicting the impact of combinations of interventions.
we need algorithms to make better computational predictions of experiments we have never performed in the lab or in clinical trials.
Human Cell Atlas and the International Common Disease Alliance—and in new experimental platforms: data platforms and algorithms. But we also need a broader ecosystem of partnerships in medicine that engages interaction between clinical experts and mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers
Feng Zhang, PhD
investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; core member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT.
fundamental shift in medicine away from treating symptoms of disease and toward treating disease at its genetic roots.
Gene therapy with clinical feasibility, improved delivery methods and the development of robust molecular technologies for gene editing in human cells, affordable genome sequencing has accelerated our ability to identify the genetic causes of disease.
1,000 clinical trials testing gene therapies are ongoing, and the pace of clinical development is likely to accelerate.
refine molecular technologies for gene editing, to push our understanding of gene function in health and disease forward, and to engage with all members of society
Elizabeth Jaffee, PhD
Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; deputy director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
a single blood test could inform individuals of the diseases they are at risk of (diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc.) and that safe interventions will be available.
developing cancer vaccines. Vaccines targeting the causative agents of cervical and hepatocellular cancers have already proven to be effective. With these technologies and the wealth of data that will become available as precision medicine becomes more routine, new discoveries identifying the earliest genetic and inflammatory changes occurring within a cell as it transitions into a pre-cancer can be expected. With these discoveries, the opportunities to develop vaccine approaches preventing cancers development will grow.
shape how the culture of research will develop over the next 25 years, a culture that cares more about what is achieved than how it is achieved.
building a creative, inclusive and open research culture will unleash greater discoveries with greater impact.
John Nkengasong, PhD
Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
To meet its health challenges by 2050, the continent will have to be innovative in order to leapfrog toward solutions in public health.
Precision medicine will need to take center stage in a new public health order— whereby a more precise and targeted approach to screening, diagnosis, treatment and, potentially, cure is based on each patient’s unique genetic and biologic make-up.
Eric Topol, MD
Executive vice-president, Scripps Research Institute; founder and director, Scripps Research Translational Institute.
In 2045, a planetary health infrastructure based on deep, longitudinal, multimodal human data, ideally collected from and accessible to as many as possible of the 9+ billion people projected to then inhabit the Earth.
enhanced capabilities to perform functions that are not feasible now.
AI machines’ ability to ingest and process biomedical text at scale—such as the corpus of the up-to-date medical literature—will be used routinely by physicians and patients.
the concept of a learning health system will be redefined by AI.
Linda Partridge, PhD
Professor, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing.
Geroprotective drugs, which target the underlying molecular mechanisms of ageing, are coming over the scientific and clinical horizons, and may help to prevent the most intractable age-related disease, dementia.
Trevor Mundel, MD
President of Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
finding new ways to share clinical data that are as open as possible and as closed as necessary.
moving beyond drug donations toward a new era of corporate social responsibility that encourages biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to offer their best minds and their most promising platforms.
working with governments and multilateral organizations much earlier in the product life cycle to finance the introduction of new interventions and to ensure the sustainable development of the health systems that will deliver them.
deliver on the promise of global health equity.
Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD
Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO); president, European Society for Medical Oncology (2018–2019).
genomic-driven analysis will continue to broaden the impact of personalized medicine in healthcare globally.
Precision medicine will continue to deliver its new paradigm in cancer care and reach more patients.
Immunotherapy will deliver on its promise to dismantle cancer’s armory across tumor types.
AI will help guide the development of individually matched
genetic patient screenings
the promise of liquid biopsy policing of disease?
Pardis Sabeti, PhD
Professor, Harvard University & Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
the development and integration of tools into an early-warning system embedded into healthcare systems around the world could revolutionize infectious disease detection and response.
But this will only happen with a commitment from the global community.
Els Toreele, PhD
Executive director, Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign
we need a paradigm shift such that medicines are no longer lucrative market commodities but are global public health goods—available to all those who need them.
This will require members of the scientific community to go beyond their role as researchers and actively engage in R&D policy reform mandating health research in the public interest and ensuring that the results of their work benefit many more people.
The global research community can lead the way toward public-interest driven health innovation, by undertaking collaborative open science and piloting not-for-profit R&D strategies that positively impact people’s lives globally.
Evolution of the Human Cell Genome Biology Field of Gene Expression, Gene Regulation, Gene Regulatory Networks and Application of Machine Learning Algorithms in Large-Scale Biological Data Analysis
How transcription factors (TFs) interpret cis-regulatory DNA sequence to control gene expression remains unclear, largely because past studies using native and engineered sequences had insufficient scale. Here, we measure the expression output of >100 million synthetic yeast promoter sequences that are fully random. These sequences yield diverse, reproducible expression levels that can be explained by their chance inclusion of functional TF binding sites. We use machine learning to build interpretable models of transcriptional regulation that predict ~94% of the expression driven from independent test promoters and ~89% of the expression driven from native yeast promoter fragments. These models allow us to characterize each TF’s specificity, activity and interactions with chromatin. TF activity depends on binding-site strand, position, DNA helical face and chromatin context. Notably, expression level is influenced by weak regulatory interactions, which confound designed-sequence studies. Our analyses show that massive-throughput assays of fully random DNA can provide the big data necessary to develop complex, predictive models of gene regulation.
The Evolution of the Human Cell Genome Biology Field of Gene Expression, Gene Regulation, Gene Regulatory Networks and Application of Machine Learning Algorithms in Large-Scale Biological Data Analysis is presented in the following Table
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To access each reference as a live link, go to the number in the first column in the Table and look it up in the List of References in the Link, below
Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
Carl G. de Boer
, Eeshit Dhaval Vaishnav
, Nir Friedman
& Aviv Regev
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Eeshit Dhaval Vaishnav
& Aviv Regev
School of Computer Science and Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Ronen Sadeh
& Nir Friedman
Initiative for Maximizing Student Development Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Esteban Luis Abeyta
Contributions
C.G.D. and A.R. drafted the manuscript, with all authors contributing. C.G.D. analyzed the data. C.G.D., E.D.V., E.L.A. and R.S. performed the experiments. A.R. and N.F. supervised the research.
A.R. is an SAB member of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Neogene Therapeutics, Asimov, and Syros Pharmaceuticals, an equity holder of Immunitas, and a founder of and equity holder in Celsius Therapeutics. All other authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cite this article
Boer, C.G., Vaishnav, E.D., Sadeh, R. et al. Deciphering eukaryotic gene-regulatory logic with 100 million random promoters. Nat Biotechnol (2019) doi:10.1038/s41587-019-0315-8
Data Science & Analytics: What do Data Scientists Do in 2020 and a Pioneer Practitioner’s Portfolio of Algorithm-based Decision Support Systems for Operations Management in Several Industrial Verticals
I can attest that she is absolutely correct. See below, a Pioneer Practitioner’s Portfolio of Algorithm-based Decision Support Systems for Operations Management in Several Industrial Verticals
These key distinctions are:
Data Scientists vs Data Engineers
In the mid-2000s, we saw the emergence of the Data Scientist position. As cited in the O’Reilly article: “This increase in the demand for data scientists has been driven by the success of the major Internet companies. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Amazon have all made their marks by using data creatively: not just warehousing data, but turning it into something of value.” Not surprisingly, any organization that has data of value is looking at data science and data scientists to increasingly extract more value from that information.
Originating from roots in statistical modeling and data analysis, data scientists have backgrounds in advanced math and statistics, advanced analytics, and increasingly machine learning / AI. The focus of data scientists is, unsurprisingly, data science — that is to say, how to extract useful information from a sea of data, and how to translate business and scientific informational needs into the language of information and math. Data scientists need to be masters of statistics, probability, mathematics, and algorithms that help to glean useful insights from huge piles of information. These data scientists usually have learned programming out of necessity more than anything else in order to run programs and run advanced analysis on data. As a result, the code that data scientists have usually been tasked to write, is of a minimal nature – only as necessary to accomplish a data science task (R is a common language for them to use) and work best when they are provided clean data to run advanced analytics on. A data scientist is a scientist who creates hypothesis, runs tests and analysis of the data, and then translates their results for someone else in the organization to easily view and understand.
On the other hand, data scientists can’t perform their jobs without access to large volumes of clean data. Extracting, cleaning, and moving data is not really the role of a data scientist, but rather that of a data engineer. Data Engineers have programming and technology expertise, and have previously been involved with data integration, middleware, analytics, business data portal, and extract-transform-load (ETL) operations. The data engineer’s center of gravity and skills are focused around big data and distributed systems, and experience with programming languages such as Java, Python, Scala, and scripting tools and techniques. Data engineers are challenged with the task of taking data from a wide range of systems in structured and unstructured formats, and data which is usually not “clean”, with missing fields, mismatched data types, and other data-related issues. These data engineers need to use their programming, integration, architecture, and systems skills to clean all the data and put it into a format and system that data scientists can then use to analyze, build their data models, and provide value to the organization. In this way, the role of a data engineer is an engineer who designs, builds and arranges data.
Can there be a combined Data Scientist-Engineer role?
While it might seem that the roles of a data scientist and data engineer are distinct, data scientists and data engineers share many traits and skill sets. These overlapping skills include the necessity to work with and manipulate big data sets, programming skills to apply operations to the data, data analytics skills, and general fluency with systems operations.
Rather than engineering and programming-centric tools, data scientists need data science-centric tools. Right now there’s a growing collection of these tools, often emerging from data or predictive analytics environments that suit the needs of data scientists. However, it’s possible that even more business-centric tools might be appropriate, especially as the data scientists become more embedded with the line of business. For example, decades ago if you wanted to operate on large volumes of data in a spreadsheet-like format, this involved programming, but tools like Excel introduced things like pivot tables and now business managers are able to perform all sorts of analyses. It’s only a matter of time before tools like Excel embed data science capabilities, or business-centric data mining and analysis tools into their products.
As the talent gap for data scientists continues to widen, there is no doubt that we will see new tools created out of necessity to allow non-technical (read: business) people to run, test, and analyze data. Strategic business managers will begin to learn data science, without needing or wanting programming or data integration experience. Traditional data scientists will still be needed to run very complex analysis of data. For the most part however, basic analysis will move more to the business unit due to increasingly easy-to-use tools. This means we have still yet to see which tool or technology will be the dominant one for ML and data science in the enterprise.
This Free, 73 Page E-Book is the Complete Guide to Successful Big Data projects
I’m really tired of seeing Big Data projects fail. They fail for both technical and managerial reasons. They all fail for similar reasons and that’s just sad because we can fix or prevent them. Gartner’s research shows that 85% of Big Data projects don’t even make it into production.
“Only 15 percent of businesses reported deploying their big data project to production, effectively unchanged from last year (14 percent).”
A Pioneer Practitioner’s Portfolio of Algorithm-based Decision Support Systems for Operations Management in Several Industrial Verticals: Analytics Designer, Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
On this landscape about IT, The Internet, Analytics, Statistics, Big Data, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, I am to tell stories on my own pioneering work in data science, Algorithm-based decision support systems design for different organizations in several sectors of the US economy:
Startups:
TimeØ Group
Concept Five Technologies, Inc.
MDSS, Inc.
LPBI Group
Top Tier Management Consulting: SRI International, Monitor Group;
OEM: Amdahl Corporation;
Top 6th System Integrator: Perot System Corporation;
FFRDC: MITRE Corporation.
Publishing industry: was Director of Research at McGraw-Hill/CTB.
Northeastern University, Researcher on Cardiovascular Pharmaco-therapy at Bouve College of Health Sciences (Independent research guided by Professor of Pharmacology)
For-Profit Top Tier Consulting: Monitor Company, Now Deloitte
Not-for-Profit Top Tier Consulting: SRI International
FFRDC: MITRE
eScientific Publishing: LPBI Group: Developers of Curation methodology for e-Articles [N = 3,700], electronic Table of Contents for e-Books in Medicine [N = 16, https://lnkd.in/ekWGNqA] and e-Proceedings of Biotech Conferences [N = 70].
Pioneering implementations of analytics to business decision making: contributions to domain knowledge conceptualization, research design, methodology development, data modeling and statistical data analysis: Aviva Lev-Ari, UCB, PhD’83; HUJI MA’76
Was prepared for publication in American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU), May 2018 Newsletter, Hebrew University’s HUJI AlumniSpotlight Section.
Aviva Lev-Ari’s profile was up on 5/3/2018 on AFHU website under the Alumni Spotlight at https://www.afhu.org/
On 5/11/2018, Excerpts were Published in AFHU e-news.
Histopathological images are the gold standard tool for cancer diagnosis, whose interpretation requires manual inspection by expert pathologists. This process is time-consuming for the patients and subject to human error. Recent advances in deep learning models, particularly convolutional neural networks, combined with big databases of patient histopathology images will pave the path for cancer researchers to create more accurate guiding tools for pathologists. In this talk, I will review the latest advances of big data in healthcare analytics and focus on deep learning applications in cancer research. Targeted at a general audience, I will provide a high-level overview of technical concepts in deep learning image analysis, and describe a typical cloud-based workflow for tackling such big data problems. I will conclude my talk by sharing some of our most recent results based on a wide range of cancer types.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Boston University – Questrom
Mohammad is a faculty at Boston University, Questrom School of Business, where he teaches data analytics and big data to master’s students. Mohammad’s current research area involves deep learning and its applications in cancer research.
Large scale image recognition and classification is an interesting and challenging problem. This case study uses fashion-MNIST dataset that involves 60000 training images and 10000 testing images. Several popular deep learning models are explored in this study to arrive at a suitable model with high accuracy. Although convolutional neural networks have emerged as a gold-standard for image recognition and classification problems due to speed and accuracy advantages, arriving at an optimal model and making several choices at the time of specifying model architecture, is still a challenging task. This case study provides the best practices and interesting insights.
Bharatendra Rai, Ph.D. is Professor of Business Analytics in the Charlton College of Business at UMass Dartmouth. His research interests include machine learning & deep learning applications.
Train data: 60,000
Test data: 10,000
Dataset available from Google MNIST Fashion Data – items in DB: data already labelled
Most companies today require fast, traceable, and actionable answers to their data questions. This talk will present the structure of the data science process along with cutting edge developments in computing and data science technology (DST) with direct applications to real world problems (with a lot of pictures!). Everything from modeling to team building will be discussed, with clear business applications.
Erez has spent his career helping companies solve problems using data science. He is currently a graduate student in computer science and business at MIT. Previously, he worked in data science at Amgen Inc. and as a technologist at Wolfram Research.
Health and healthcare organizations are swimming in data but few have the skills to show and see the story in their data using the best practices of data visualization. This presentation raises awareness about the research that inform these best practice and stories from the front of groups who are embracing them and re-imagining how they display their data and information. These groups include the NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), and leading medical centers and providers across the country.
Katherine Rowell is a health, healthcare, and data visualization expert. She is Co-founder and Principal of HealthDataViz, a Boston firm that specializes in helping healthcare organizations organize, design and present visual displays of data to inform their decisions and stimulate… Read More →
This presentation will cover the use of machine learning for maximizing the impact of a hospital readmissions intervention program. With machine learning, clinical care teams can identify and focus their intervention efforts on patients with the highest risk of readmission. The talk will go over the goals, logistics, and considerations for defining, implementing, and measuring our ML driven intervention program. While covering some technical details, this presentation will focus on the business implementation of advanced technology for helping people live healthier lives.
Miguel Martinez is a Data Scientist at Optum Enterprise Analytics. Relied on as a tech lead in advancing AI healthcare initiatives, he is passionate about identifying and developing data science solutions for the benefit of organizations and people.
There’s a great deal of confusion about the role of a knowledge architecture in artificial intelligence projects. Some people don’t believe that any reference data is necessary. But in reality reference data is required- even if there is no metadata or architecture definitions outside defined externally for an AI algorithm, someone has made the decisions about architecture and classification within the program. However, this will not work for every organization because there are terms, workflows, product attributes, and organizing principles that are unique to the organization and that need to be defined for AI tools to work most effectively.
Seth Earley is a published author and public speaker about artificial intelligence and information architecture. He wrote “There’s no AI without IA” which has become an industry catchphrase used by a number of people including Ginny Rometty, the CEO of IBM.
This panel includes senior leaders from across industry, academia & government to discuss challenges they are tackling, needs they anticipate and goals they will achieve
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Aashir Awan, Phd
Alan F. Kaul, PharmD., MS, MBA, FCCP
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David Orchard-Webb, PhD
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Demet Sag, Ph.D., CRA, GCP
Daniel Menzin
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Gail S Thornton
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Ed Kislauskis
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Rosalind Codrington, PhD
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