Philadelphia, PA (October 30, 2019) – The Childhood Cancer Data Lab (CCDL) powered by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has been integrating data to promote childhood cancer research and continue toward Alex’s goals of finding cures for all kids with cancer since it opened in 2017. The CCDL was created to fill critical research gaps in the childhood cancer community and serves as a central location to collect, analyze and share childhood cancer data from research conducted around the world. It acts as a digital initiative for collecting and disseminating data to researchers and the public to accelerate research toward cures.

Under the direction of Casey Greene, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania, the CCDL team of software developers and data scientists focuses on developing software that is usable by childhood cancer researchers. The team built a software product, refine.bio, which aims to provide the field with ready-to-use data for research. They have successfully processed just over 1.25 million transcriptomic assays or data that initially would have cost $1.25 billion to generate. Having successfully completed processing the assays, the CCDL is prepared to roll-out of beta for broad/public use. This means every researcher has free access to more than $1 billion of data at their fingertips, thus providing them with the ability to rapidly connect their own findings to everyone else’s, improving the pace and efficiency of discovery, and leading to faster treatment identification.

“The CCDL is a unique effort to build the capacity for data-intensive research, not across an institution but across a field. I am excited that we have the opportunity to harness data that were generated, shared and then often forgotten for the fight against childhood cancer,” says Greene.

For more information visit CCDataLab.org or follow on Twitter @CancerDataLab.

 

About Childhood Cancer
Childhood cancer is a general term used to describe cancer in children occurring regularly, randomly and sparing no ethnic group, socioeconomic class or geographic region. Childhood cancer extends to over a dozen types of cancers and a countless amount of subtypes. Just a few of these cancer types include: Ewing’s sarcoma, glioma, leukemia, lymphoma, medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, osteosarcoma, retinoblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and Wilms’ tumor.  In the United States, childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 19.

About Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children with cancer. Her spirit and determination inspired others to support her cause, and when she passed away at the age of 8, she had raised $1 million. Since then, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement. Today, ALSF is one of the leading funders of pediatric cancer research in the U.S. and Canada raising more than $200 million so far, funding nearly 1,000 research projects and providing programs to families affected by childhood cancer. For more information, visit AlexsLemonade.org.