Biostatistics
Our Goal
To provide biostatistical support for cancer research conducted by Simmons Cancer Center members.
Location
T. Boone Pickens Biomedical Research Building (ND)
North Campus
6001 Forest Park Road
Dallas, TX 75235
The Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) serves as a centralized biostatistics support facility for cancer-related research at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Advances in biotechnologies and computing hardware and software have greatly increased the need for sophisticated statistical methodologies. Biostatistics is an essential, scientific component of high-quality cancer research, particularly in clinical and translational research. Biostatisticians play important integrated roles in each of the Simmons Cancer Center research programs, as well as the disease-oriented teams.
Services
The infrastructure and methodological expertise – accessible to all Simmons Cancer Center investigators through both collaboration, direct services, and investigator training – are critical to developing and implementing high-quality cancer research.
- Provide support on hypothesis formulation, experiment design, power and sample size estimation, grant application, conduct of trials, interim and final data analysis, and manuscript preparation
- Design and teach biostatistics courses oriented toward junior faculty, fellows, and postdoctoral students
- Participate in informal educational activities, such as cancer research retreats, translational sciences forums, works in progress seminars, journal clubs, internal mock review of grant applications, and one-to-one consultations. Biostatistics faculty also serve as statistical mentors for junior faculty and oncology trainees.
- Provide complementary support for cancer investigators
- Facilitating the generation of knowledge from complex data sets across all Simmons Cancer Center programs
- Assistance is available on all types of research projects, ranging from clinical trials and basic science experiments to epidemiological studies. Early consultation during the design phase of a study is highly recommended.
Equipment
The Shared Resource has up-to-date Windows-based desktop and laptop systems, and automated backup systems with access to cloud storage service through Microsoft OneDrive, and an on-campus large-scale computing facility (BioHPC) which includes:
- 28,000 CPU cores HPC cluster
- 60 large-memory GPUequipped nodes for massive parallel programs
- 65TB+ of RAM
- 5400TB high-end GPFS parallel file system
Fees
BSR support is focused on the development of cancer-related research conducted by SCCC members. Research projects are prioritized as follows: (1) NIH or other peer-reviewing agency grant applications, (2) grant applications from other funding sources, (3) investigator-initiated trials, and (4) ongoing unfunded projects and manuscripts. Services for new projects are supported through CCSG and SCCC. For other projects (where BSR was not built into the extramural grant application or investigator-initiated trial), a one-hour initial consultation is offered free of charge. After this, service is rendered on a fee-for-service basis. The rate is $90/hour for cancer center members and $120/hour for non-cancer center members.
Technology
BSR has access (via servers, intranet, and individual PCs) to all major statistical and data management software such as:
- SAS
- R
- PASS 2019
- nQuery Advisor
- Mplus
- ACCESS
- REDCap
- Oracle
Leadership and Contact
