The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in collaboration with 10x Genomics, Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has launched an open foundational database for cancer immunotherapy research. The CRI Discovery Engine was created to learn more about how the immune system responds to treatments.
“The goal of the CRI Discovery Engine really is to accelerate discovery in the immunotherapy space,” said Alicia Zhou, PhD, CEO of the Cancer Research Institute. “With immunotherapy, we are dealing with a ‘living therapy’—so the key is to capture the right cells, at the right time, in three-dimensional space. With the current advances in spatial sequencing technology, partnering with 10x Genomics, we are finally able to see the resolution of single cells in real time. We can capture immune cells interacting with cancer cells at the exact moment when we perturb that system. This will be the key to unlocking novel immunotherapy combinations for cancer treatment.”
By enabling more researchers to work with the same high-resolution spatial and temporal data to accelerate the pace of research, the database intends to tackle two of cancer research's big questions: why are so few results of high-impact studies able to be replicated, and why is so little of cancer research accessible to other scientists. A study published in BMC Medicine showed that only 16% of oncology data are publicly available, and only 1% of oncology data are available enough that other researchers are able to use them.
“One of the biggest challenges in academic research is that we work in silos,” said E. John Wherry, PhD, Scientific Advisory Council Associate Director of the CRI, who is one of the three principal investigators of the initiative. “There’s competition and proprietary knowledge that institutions feel they need to protect. But that approach slows everyone down. This collaboration represents a commitment to breaking down those barriers because we all share the same goal: getting better treatments to patients faster.”
Instead, the CRI Discovery Engine will allow outside scientists to add their findings over time to research started by investigators of the Discovery Engine. Additionally, all of the data will be optimized for use with artificial intelligence and machine learning. When the research is connected to artificial intelligence, the investigators will more easily be able to identify patterns and gain insights from the large datasets.
Initially, the three principal investigators will focus on melanoma and colorectal cancer in areas where treatment have failed for unknown or unshared reasons.
“Someday we’ll look back on this as a turning point for immunotherapy,” said investigator Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD, of the Cancer Research Institute. “By building a shared, high-resolution understanding of how the human immune system responds to interventions over time, we’re unlocking a new era of discovery—one that shows us why treatments work, why they fail, and how to design what comes next.”
“The challenges facing cancer research right now are real. Federal funding is under threat and public trust in science is deteriorating,” said Dr. Zhou. “This database represents what we can accomplish when we stop working in isolation and start working together with the urgency this moment in history demands. Cancer doesn’t care about institutional egos, proprietary data, or who gets credit. Neither do we.”
