Skip to main contentSkip to footer content

Biomedical Informatics Core

 

Team


Lucio Miele

Lucio Miele, MD, PhD
Core Director, Administrative Support Grp Leader,
LSU Health New Orleans 


Ron Horswell

Ronald Horswell, PhD
Data Access Grp (DAG) Leader,
Pennington Biomedical 




Dan Fort

Daniel Fort, PhD
BGG Member,
Ochsner Health New Orleans Site Lead


Chindo Hicks

Chindo Hicks, PhD
Bioinformatics and Genomics Grp (BGG) Leader,
LSU Health New Orleans 




David Crosslin

David Crosslin, PhD
Genomics DAG Member,
Tulane University


san-chu

San Chu, MS, MApStat
BMI Analyst, DAG & ASG Member,
Pennington Biomedical

 

Contact this core
Email: BiomedInformatics@lacats.org


About This Core

The Biomedical Informatics (BMI) Core is the data science backbone of the LA CaTS Center.  It functions as a collaborative multidisciplinary unit, providing investigators with a “state of the art” informatics services from clinical data access to bioinformatics and genomics support. The BMI Core enables local, regional and national collaborations, while enhancing our data scientist pipeline and public awareness.

To address the multi-faceted needs of data science, the core is structured into four functional groups listed below.

  • Data Access Group (DAG) more info
  • Administrative Support Group (ASG) supports investigator access to existing data resources & warehouses; creates i2b2-accessible virtual cohorts and biorepositories
  • Clinical Trials Group (CTG) more info
  • Bioinformatics & Genomics Group (BGG) more info


Core Activities & Resources

The BMI Core is an integral part of LA CaTS and provides a comprehensive research infrastructure, innovative initiatives and significant collaborative opportunities essential to the Center’s overall mission to significantly transform clinical and translational research throughout our region and address Louisiana’s chronic disease burden.

N3C is a NCATS-led, centralized national data resource developed for researchers to study COVID-19 and identify potential treatments.

Read more HERE.

REACHnet is a clinical data research network (CDRN) that is designed to help Louisiana clinicians and researchers conduct robust comparative effectiveness research with integrated recruitment and data solutions.

Read more HERE.

REACHnet Projects: click https://www.lacats.org/about/projects/REACHnet.aspx.

The LA CaTS BMI Core lead two NIH administrative supplements focused on SARS-COV-2 Surveillance Studies- “Health Disparities and SARS-CoV-2 Evolution: A Focused Viral Genomics Study” (NOT-GM-21-031) AND “SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Surveillance Network”. The projects were in collaboration with other cores and IDeA-CTR partners engaged in COVID sequencing.

REDCap is a web-based data capture tool that can be accessed from anywhere on the internet.  Read more HERE.

Investigators can utilize REDCap services through the BMI or Cyberinfrastructure Enhancement Cores.

Specific Aims

  1. To provide training and enhance utilization of high-resolution bioinformatics and artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms.

  2. To expand our existing support for collaboration and data sharing within LA CaTS Cores and between LA CaTS investigators and CTSA Centers, as well as with Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) and the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN) by broadening the geographic scope and population coverage of data resources available to LA CaTS investigators.

  3. To expand our educational mission, in close cooperation with the Professional Development (PD) Core, to create a pipeline of translational data scientists with emphasis on diversity and to enable and support data research by citizen scientists and community stakeholders.