The Australian Bioinformatics Commons Paediatric Cancer Pathfinder Project

Pediatric cancer is a rare and deadly disease. This makes it challenging, or impossible, to recruit large cohorts of paediatric cancer cases, thus limiting our understanding of the biology and optimal treatment of childhood cancers. To deal with this, researchers must maximize their sample size by sharing data about pediatric brain cancers internationally. This project proposes to develop the Australian Bioinformatics Commons (AusBioCommons), in partnership with CHOP. Researchers will combine data for pediatric brain cancer cases from the ZERO Childhood Cancer Project and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas, with the objective of identifying new brain cancer subtypes. This will be the largest genomic data sharing initiative ever undertaken in Australia. This project will allow data to be shared between researchers in Australia and the United States, increasing the depth of research overall.