October 27, 2016 — CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 27, 2016 – Seven Bridges, the biomedical data analysis company, today announced that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has extended the statement of work for its Cancer Genomics Cloud (CGC) pilots, broadening the scope of the pilot to include additional sources of data and enhance usability. A key objective of the extension is to integrate the Seven Bridges CGC with the NCI’s Genomic Data Commons (GDC) and other data repositories of interest to the cancer research community. These new data will include additional cancer genomics, imaging and proteomics datasets.

As one of three cloud pilots initiated by the NCI, the Seven Bridges CGC makes The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) available to researchers worldwide, and makes the data usable by offering cloud-based computation and powerful tools for genomic data analysis. Integration with the GDC will allow researchers to use the Seven Bridges CGC to access and analyze data from an increasing number of cancer genome programs, alongside TCGA, including data on pediatric cancers through the Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) program, and the Cancer Genome Characterization Initiative (CGCI).

“The CGC Pilots provide innovative methods to query, visualize, and analyze cancer data.” said Tony Kerlavage, Ph.D., lead for the CGC pilots at the NCI. “These cloud-based systems eliminate the need for researchers to download and store extremely large datasets by allowing them to bring analysis software to the data, instead of the traditional process of bringing data to the software. They also offer the computational capacity, unavailable elsewhere outside of supercomputer centers, necessary to analyze these data.”

“The CGC Pilot expansion also aims to allow the developers to pioneer methods for accessing and analyzing other data types, such as medical imaging and protein (called proteomic) data,” Kerlavage added.

The Seven Bridges CGC went live in February of this year and today more than 1,100 scientists are using the ecosystem to analyze TCGA data as part of their research.

“Our vision for the Cancer Genomics Cloud has always been about giving as many researchers as possible useful access to cancer genomic data, by putting it alongside the computational tools they need to make new strides in cancer research,” said Seven Bridges Senior Vice President of Science and Product, Brandi Davis-Dusenbery, Ph.D. who leads the CGC project. “We are delighted to continue working to expand both the reach and the scope of the Cancer Genomics Cloud to include more data sets and support more users, ultimately accelerating the progress of precision treatments for cancer.”

About Seven Bridges
Seven Bridges is the biomedical data analysis company accelerating breakthroughs in genomics research for cancer, drug development and precision medicine. The scalable, cloud-based Seven Bridges Platform empowers rapid, collaborative analysis of millions of genomes in concert with other forms of biomedical data. Thousands of researchers in government, biotech, pharmaceutical and academic labs use Seven Bridges, including three of the largest genomics projects in the world: U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Genomics Cloud pilot, the Million Veteran Program, and Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. As the NIH’s only commercial Trusted Partner, Seven Bridges authenticates and authorizes access to one of the world’s largest cancer genomics dataset. Named one of the world’s smartest companies by MIT Technology Review, Seven Bridges has offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Belgrade; London; Istanbul; and San Francisco.
Press Contacts
media@sevenbridges.com