ISB News

CRI iAtlas Expands to Interactive Analysis of Data on Immunotherapy Treatments

CRI iAtlas

A tool in cancer researchers’ toolboxes just got a lot more powerful. The team behind CRI iAtlas today announced a major release to its immuno-oncology portal. 

CRI iAtlas is a comprehensive web-based resource that allows oncologists and researchers to study and analyze interactions between tumors and the immune microenvironment. The iAtlas team just released immuno-oncology modules that allow investigators to access and work with genomics data from trials of treatment with immune-checkpoint inhibitors. 

“This is an exciting addition to the iAtlas portal,” said ISB Bioinformatics Scientist Carol Heimann, who led development of the new modules. “We think this expansion will provide researchers a tool to make use of clinical and molecular insights from response to CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors trials to foster the scientific development of the field.” 

Checkpoint inhibitors have shown great promise in cancer immunotherapy treatments, and the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two scientists who made key cancer immunology discoveries. 

The just-announced release includes data from six independent studies, including datasets in melanoma, bladder cancer and glioblastoma multiforme on the response to specific checkpoint inhibitors. While these data were already published, it has been difficult for researchers to access in one place in order to perform integrated or comparative analyses. 

“The new capabilities of iAtlas allow researchers to compare how different aspects of immune response differ between those who respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors and those who do not. This can be evaluated in multiple types of tumors,” said ISB Senior Research Scientist Dr. Vésteinn Þórsson.

CRI iAtlas was unveiled in 2018 and, containing information from more than 10,000 tumor samples across 33 cancer types – data that came out of the PanCancer Atlas Initiative, the final phase of The Cancer Genome Atlas. 

The resource came about thanks to a partnership between ISB, the Cancer Research Institute and Sage Bionetworks

That group is now working with the lab of Dr. Benjamin Vincent of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Care Center. 

“We are very excited  to work with Dr. Vincent’s group on this project, as their expertise in immunogenomics has really helped us take CRI iAtlas to the next level,” said Dr. Ilya Shmulevich, ISB professor and head of the Shmulevich Lab.

Recent Articles

  • Spotlight on ISB Education graphic

    2023-24 School Year ISB Education Highlights

    In the final installment of the 2023-24 academic year roundup, we highlight some of the top projects the ISB Education team is working on. Throughout the summer, the ISB Education was busy publishing research in a special edition of Connected Science Learning, hosting interns, and much more.

  • 2024 ISB Virtual Microbiome Series

    Our multi-day microbiome-themed virtual course and symposium is back for the fifth year! ISB is hosting a two-day course on October 16 & 17, 2024, followed by a symposium on October 18, 2024 titled, “A gut feeling: Microbes and their impacts on our minds.” Both events are virtual and free.

  • Fluidized bed reactor

    How Microbes Evolve to Spatially Divide and Conquer an Environment 

    ISB researchers examined representative organisms of two classes of microbes whose interaction contributes to the conversion of more than 1 gigaton of carbon into methane every year. They found that gene mutations selected over a relatively short timeframe in the two microbes led to distinct functions.