Abstract 2224: NCI Office of Cancer Genomics: Multidisciplinary genomic research initiatives drive discoveries towards the clinic
Authors: Kyi Cindy W. , Birriel Pamela C. , Davidsen Tanja M. , Ferguson Martin L. , Gesuwan Patee , Griner Nicholas B. , He Yiwen , Perez-Mayoral Julyann , Tonsing-Carter Eva , Gerhard Daniela S. 
Published: July 2021

The mission of the Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is to advance the understanding of cancers to improve clinical outcomes. To accomplish this goal, OCG supports innovative and complementary initiatives that characterize and generate comprehensive genomic datasets from rare and pediatric cancers, develop bioinformatics tools to analyze large-scale genomic datasets and identify the underlying etiology of cancer, generate biologically relevant human tumor-derived next-generation cancer models (NGCMs), and advance technologies to better expand and utilize these NGCMs. The Cancer Genome Characterization Initiative (CGCI) and Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) programs aim to identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers in understudied, rare and high-risk adult and pediatric cancers. Clinically annotated tumor and normal matched tissues are characterized by whole-genome, whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. The research community can access these datasets via the CGCI Data Matrix and TARGET Data Matrix, as well as through NCI's Genomic Data Commons (GDC). The Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Network and Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI) are functional genomics programs. The CTD2 Network aims to understand tumor development, heterogeneity, drug resistance and metastasis to develop optimal combinations of treatments. The Network develops analytical tools, generates diverse raw/primary datasets that can be accessed through the CTD2 Data Portal and further validates subsets of these data which are shared on the CTD2 Dashboard. The Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI) is an international consortium generating patient-derived NGCMs from diverse tumor subtypes including rare adult and pediatric cancers as a community resource. The biospecimen, clinical and molecular characterization data from the derived model, originating tumor and normal tissue can be accessed through NCI's GDC. The HCMI Searchable Catalog allows users to query and identify available models using various data elements including clinical data and masked somatic MAF variants. The Next-Gen Technologies for Next-Gen Cancer Models (NGTfNGCM) program supports the development of technologies and tools that will enhance the use of HCMI and other models in research. The new tools and broader use of NCGMs will contribute to identification of mechanisms of resistance, novel therapeutic targets and development of diagnostic and/or predictive biomarkers for clinical applications. Data, tools, protocols and resources generated by the OCG initiatives are made publicly available via the OCG website (https://ocg.cancer.gov/). The OCG website also provides data usage policies, data access guides, experimental methods, standard operating procedures and helpful links.

Citation Format: Cindy W. Kyi, Pamela C. Birriel, Tanja M. Davidsen, Martin L. Ferguson, Patee Gesuwan, Nicholas B. Griner, Yiwen He, Julyann Perez-Mayoral, Eva Tonsing-Carter, Daniela S. Gerhard. NCI Office of Cancer Genomics: Multidisciplinary genomic research initiatives drive discoveries towards the clinic [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 2224.