Wei Zhang: Collaboration is the cornerstone of progress in childhood cancer research

Wei Zhang shared a post on LinkedIn:

“September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month—a time to focus on the critical challenges faced by children diagnosed with cancer and the profound impact on their families and society. Childhood cancer is rare, yet its effects are devastating, affecting not only the young patients but everyone around them. Addressing these challenges requires a collective effort—a village of researchers, clinicians, families, and advocates—all working together to better understand these diseases and develop innovative treatment strategies.

Collaboration is the cornerstone of progress in childhood cancer research. Effective data sharing and model development are vital for advancing knowledge and discovering new therapies. However, maintaining patient confidentiality and data security remains a top priority. Federated Learning emerges as a powerful solution to this challenge. By allowing researchers to train machine learning models collaboratively across multiple institutions without exchanging sensitive data, federated learning ensures both data privacy and robustness in model development.

Our genomics and bioinformatics team at the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, a crucial component of the Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium led by the esteemed pediatric oncologist Dr. Giselle Sholler at Penn State, is thrilled to share some exciting news. Our P30 Administrative Supplement grant focusing on federated learning and multimodal models to predict the survival of pediatric cancer patients and identify new therapeutic targets has been recommended for funding. This grant will enable us to leverage cutting-edge techniques to integrate diverse data types—genomics, imaging, clinical data—to build comprehensive models that can guide precision oncology for children.

Moreover, I am personally excited about the opportunity to work closely with Dr. Sholler on two additional grant applications this month. These collaborative efforts embody our commitment to driving forward the next generation of pediatric cancer research, ensuring that every child has the chance for a brighter future. Together, we are not just working on scientific discovery; we are creating a network of hope and resilience that spans across institutions and disciplines.”

Source: Wei Zhang/LinkedIn

Dr. Wei Zhang is the Hanes and Willis Family Professor in Cancer and Director of Cancer Genomics and Precision Oncology at Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. Previously, he served as the director of MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Cancer Genomics Core Laboratory. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on cancer genomics, precision oncology, and cancer systems informatics, supported by continuous funding from NCI and other foundations since 1994.