Project Request Form

Request Prioritization Guidelines

Due to the high volume of requests for our services and our desire to continue providing high quality computational/bioinformatics support, we are initiating a prioritization system in 2019. The intent is to provide faster response times for projects that have time-sensitive deadlines. Accordingly, after the initial discussion about your request we will be internally prioritizing projects as:

High Priority:

Any projects having time-sensitive timelines, eg. upcoming site visit, manuscript submission or revision requiring new/additional data analysis. Generally projects are deemed as High Priority, when they satisfy all four criteria below:

  1. Experimental design was discussed with CCBR prior to collection of samples
  2. Data are of good quality (based on our QC assessment)
  3. Sample sizes are sufficient to draw conclusive results
  4. Projects involving standard analyses of known data-types (RNA-Seq, Exome-Seq, Whole-genome seq, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq)

Standard Priority:

All other projects that do not satisfy the criteria above will be deemed as Standard Priority projects. Generally such projects would fall into one or more of the following categories:

  1. Studies with suboptimal designs (inadequate sample-sizes or QC issues)
  2. Exploratory data mining on public data – unless motives are clear and all requirements for transparent data lineage (e.g. raw data vs. processed data) are available
  3. Pilot projects with unclear motives for continuation
  4. Multi-omic data integration projects
  5. Projects involving novel data-types, sequencing platforms or library capture methods

In addition, we are now offering a Self-service option – our NGS analyses pipelines are available to the NCI community so that those groups interested in running their own analyses can get started immediately with our active assistance. Access and support for these tools (included in our Pipeliner program) can be found at  https://ccbr.github.io/Pipeliner/.  This suite of tools supports most Exome-Seq, Whole Genome-Seq, RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq analyses, and provide basic analytical results, including QC and initial results (e.g. differentially expressed gene list, DNA/RNA variants or ChIP-Seq peaks). Please mail CCBRPipeliner@mail.nih.gov for questions regarding setup, but documentation on the Pipeliner GitHub Wiki (https://github.com/CCBR/Pipeliner/wiki) should address most questions.


Guidelines for Successful Collaborations with CCBR

  1. Come with explicit hypothesis, sample numbers, experimental design questions prior to starting the experiment
  2. Ask clear questions, state the desired endpoint in a clear manner and have future plans for publishable outcome.
  3. Communicate clearly what goals are and have expectations agreed upon by both parties (CCBR and PI)
  4. Agree to include lead analyst(s) as co-author(s) on publications as applicable.
  5. Have a point person in the lab group who can adequately follow up with next steps and validate results from analysis.

Also, please be aware that a project can change in priority once analyses is in-progress.  For any questions or concerns regarding specifics regarding time allocated to your projects, or for any questions, comments or concerns, please contact Maggie Cam (mail: maggie.cam@nih.gov, phone: 240-760-7179).

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