Quantifying Phenotypic Evolution during Tumor Growth

Project Summary

A team of students led by Duke mathematician Marc Ryser and University of Southern California Pathology professor Darryl Shibata will characterize phenotypic evolution during the growth of human colorectal tumors. 

Themes and Categories
Health
Data+
Year
2017
Contact
Paul Bendich
Mathematics
bendich@math.duke.edu

Students will perform an in-depth investigation of phenotypic conservation at multiple functional levels in epigenomic methylation data - including CpG sites, genes, and functional groups within genes - and identify biologically relevant pathways that are preferentially conserved during growth. Students may have the opportunity to develop a clinically impactful epigenomic classifier for tumor aggressiveness and patient outcome.

Faculty Leads: Marc Ryser , Darryl Shibata

Project Manager: Lidea Shahidi, Ph.D. Candidate, ECE

Student Team: Yanlin Ma, Kevin Murgas

Related People

Related Projects

American Predatory Lending (Year 3)

Alexa Goble (Finance) joined Econ majors Chavez Cheong and Eli Levine in a ten-week exploration of mortgage enforcement actions related to the financial crisis from earlier in this century. Using NLP techniques on mortgage data from Ohio and Massachusetts, the team validated a new experimental approach to understanding the dynamics between state regulatory agencies, mortgage lenders, brokers, and loan originators. This project was a continuation of two previous Data+ projects:

https://bigdata.duke.edu/projects/american-predatory-lending-global-financial-crisis

https://bigdata.duke.edu/projects/american-predatory-lending-and-global-financial-crisis-year-2

 

View the team's project poster here

Watch the team's final presentation on Zoom:

 

Project Lead: Lee Reiners

Project Manager: Malcolm Smith Fraser

Redistricting School Zones in Durham County

Stats/Sociology major Mitchelle Mojekwu joined Neuroscience majors Kassie Hamilton and Zineb Jaidi in a ten-week exploration of data relevant to an upcoming public school zone redistricting in Durham County. Using information acquired from the General Social Survey and the US Census, the team applied modern mathematical and statistical methods for generating proposed redistricting plans, with the aim of providing decision-makers with information they can use to produce school districts that are equitable and reflective of the Durham County student population.

View the team's project poster here

Watch the team's final presentation on Zoom:

 

Faculty Lead: Greg Herschlag

Project Manager: Bernard Coles

 

Agile Waveform Design in the Presence of Opposition: Quantifying Performance

Pryia Juarez (BME/ECE), Jonathan Pilland (ECE/BME), and Matthew Traum (CS/Econ) spent teen weeks analyzing sensor data synthesized by an agile waveform generator. The team used deep reinforcement learning techniques to understand the performance of different synthetic agents representing potential attackers to the sensor system.

 

View the team's project poster here

Watch the team's final presentation on Zoom:

 

Faculty leads: Robert Calderbank, Vahid Tarokh, Ali Pezeshki

Client leads: Dr. Lauren Huie, Dr. Elizabeth Bentley, Dr. Zola Donovan, Dr. Ashley Prater-Bennette, Dr. Erin Trip

Project Manger: Suya Wu

See all Research