Oncoscape is developed at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center under the auspices of the Office of Translational Research (OTR).
To build Oncoscape, OTR established a cross-disciplinary team to connect some of the most challenging aspects of information sharing, from collecting and analyzing samples so researchers could conduct smarter studies, to creating visualizations for clinicians to easily interact with data.
Matt Jensen
Mr. Jensen has a deep background in developing tools for data analysis and visualization. In startups, he created innovative machine learning tools such as MacBrain and Evolver. In the corporate world, after working at Microsoft and other large companies, he most recently worked at Hasbro, where he developed analytical pipelines and other tools. He brings to STTR both entrepreneurial flexibility and thorough experience in best practices in software development. Mr. Jensen has published often-cited work in timeline visualizations, and his wide-ranging experience in algorithms from many fields has led him to many software innovations through analogy to different problem areas. His goal is to develop and support new modalities for looking at data, to enable researchers to see connections no one has noticed before.
Eric Holland, MD, PhD
Dr. Holland is a world-renowned physician-scientist who combines compassionate patient care with exacting laboratory research to discover more effective treatments for brain tumors. As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Holland specializes in caring for patients with glioblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumors in adults. He is committed to finding targeted treatment options for this aggressive cancer, which currently has few effective therapies. He continues to foster productive collaborations to spark discovery and advance precision oncology. He believes Oncoscape has the potential to transform patient treatment. Using this tool, researchers can now begin to group tumors by their genetic profiles to help physicians select therapies likely to work best for each patient.
Rachel Galbraith, MPH
Ms. Galbraith leads several cross-institutional efforts to speed translational research. She leverages her background in molecular genetics, public health and cell biology, and 10+ years facilitating translational research across a diverse network of over 500 members. She develops innovative solutions which enhance collaborative scientific efforts and reduce barriers slowing translational research to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and detection.
Past Contributors
Hamid Bolouri, PhD
Dr. Bolouri tackles big data, developing computational methods to discover how genes control the behavior of cells in health and disease. Dr. Bolouri’s discoveries include the first genomic model of how roughly 150 genes drive the development of a type of immune cell called a T cell, as well as the first model to reveal how a specific network of interacting genes controls early embryonic development in the sea urchin. Dr. Bolouri has contributed to the development of more than a dozen software platforms, including Oncoscape. Other past projects include identifying key molecular changes in childhood acute leukemia that can be used to guide therapy with Dr. Soheil Meshinchi, and studying the role that a specific regulatory gene plays in lung cancer with Dr. David MacPherson. While a part of STTR, Dr. Bolouri developed methods to sift through large amounts of clinical and molecular data to find patterns that can be used to tailor treatment and improve precision medicine strategies.
Gretchen Krenn
Ms. Krenn started her research career on the bench and eventually moved to a program management roll assisting in the establishment of a central tissue repository for several national clinical trials. During her time in tissue banking she managed several SQL research databases. Motivated by the massive amounts of data being generated she began to further develop her programming skills to focus on front-end development and data visualization. While a part of the Oncoscape team, her education, research and software development background helped us better understand the limitations we face as researchers, and guided the project to establish relevant cloud based solutions for the center.
Robert McDermott
Mr. McDermott started his career at the Fred Hutch in 2000 as an IT professional in Center IT. During that time, he has been involved with the design, implementation and administration of many IT systems including email, server virtualization, storage, cloud computing and more. He’s most interested in working on projects that have a direct and positive impact on the important research that is happening at the Center.
Lisa McFerrin, PhD
Dr. McFerrin specializes in the development of software and methods that bridge genomic and clinical data to advance the understanding of cancer biology and improve patient care. While she was a bioinformatics project manager with STTR, she designed tools that facilitate collaborative and reproducible research in order to lower the barriers in communication, analysis, and sharing of data, knowledge and methods. As an expert in bioinformatics, Dr. McFerrin applies mathematical and computational principles to understand large-scale biological data. Her background in such disciplines as computer science, mathematics, statistics and biology enables her to analyze data from genome sequences and clinical records to uncover novel, meaningful insights from datasets otherwise too complex to examine manually. Dr. McFerrin played a key role in the development of Oncoscape, an open-source software that helps scientists integrate information from molecular research in the laboratory with patient records and clinical studies. Her past research includes the study of proteins that are involved in normal cell growth and metabolism but can also play a significant role in the development of cancer.
Paul Shannon
Mr. Shannon spent his twenties as a carpenter, eventually returning to college to prepare for a second career as a scientific programmer. He subsequently worked in a variety of disciplines: atmospheric chemistry, psychoacoustics, mechanical engineering, radio astronomy, then realized his long-held aspiration to work in biology and medicine by joining the ISB in 2001. He spent four years at the Fred Hutch in the Bioconductor and the Solid Tumor Translational Research projects including Oncoscape.
Michael Zager
Mr. Zager has been crafting digital strategies and executions for the past 15 years. He has served in leadership roles at several notable experiential and digital agencies and partnered with bio-tech, start-up and Fortune 500 companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Toyota and Coca-Cola. Prior to joining the Fred Hutch, Michael was responsible for evolving and supporting all digital marketing platforms in T-Mobile’s retail stores. Michael’s passion for transforming people’s lives with cutting edge technology led him to Fred Hutch. While a part of STTR, he contributed enterprise architecture, software development best practices and big data expertise to Oncoscape.
Jenny Zhang
Ms. Zhang comes from a biomedical science background, but is also passionate about coding. She has experience working as a lab technician involved with tumor molecular profiling, and her programming skillset includes R, javascript, and more. Jenny contributed to Oncoscape in various ways, from web-lab-based data-collection to dry-lab-based data packing and web application development.