One of the key elements to the success of Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) is built on the foundation that collaboration leads to better science. The Biostatistics & Computational Biology Core (BCB) team embodies this belief. Led by director Brooke Fridley, PhD, BCB provides study design, statistical and bioinformatics expertise and educational training.

“Biostatistics is a foundation of biomedical science because we help with study design and downstream data analysis for all basic, clinical, translational and population-based studies. The rigorous study design and statistical analysis completed by the BCB team leads to new insights related to all aspects of human health and wellness,” said Dr. Fridley. “The mission of the BCB is to provide state-of-the-art study design, statistical expertise and computational biology/bioinformatics analysis expertise along with educational training, to support the research needs of Children’s Mercy investigators in our quest to improve the health and wellbeing of children.”

Working with BCB

The BCB is a crucial resource for anyone doing research.

“I think of the BCB team as facilitators for research,” said Dr. Fridley. “We help researchers, so they can focus on the study’s research questions and not need to know all the biostatistics concepts and statistical programming. BCB is an essential ‘team science’ player. We will collaborate on a research study from the beginning to the end.”

At the beginning of a project, the BCB team can help researchers with study design, grant methods and sample size estimation. 

“We help investigators think about their research questions and hypotheses, how they want to measure the outcomes and how frequently they need to measure the outcomes,” Dr. Fridley said. “We make sure the data they collect is what they need to collect to answer their research questions. We also help them determine the number of participants they need in a study to be able to detect a clinically meaningful effect.” 

Then, as the researchers conduct the study and enroll individuals into the study, the BCB team is more hands-off but available for assistance. At the end of a project, the BCB team pulls the data together and completes the statistical analysis of the data, including visualization of the data and interpreting the findings from the analysis. Finally, they assist the research team in the dissemination of the findings through presentations, abstracts and publications. 

The BCB team collaborates on grant-funded research projects, grant applications, non-grant-funded and internally funded projects and projects involving trainees/fellows. 

Data Visualization

The BCB team is making and using publicly available Shiny web applications for data analysis and visualization of research study data that they are actively collaborating on, enabling researchers to explore their study data. With this application, the BCB team can generate a project dashboard, visualization or analysis tools specific to a research team. For example, the team uses ShinyCell for visualization of single-cell genomic research study data. The BCB also works closely with the Research Informatics and Data Science team for the development and use of more complex informatics tools, such as the health device portal.

“By making Shiny applications, we are empowering researchers to explore their data interactively to look for new patterns or trends, with the hope of finding new hypotheses to explore,” said Dr. Fridley.

Dr. Fridley explained that the data visualization is a key aspect of biostatistics. 

“Before, researchers would give us their data at the end of the study. Then, after the biostatistician had completed the analysis, we would share with them the results from analysis. With data science advances, we are now able to enable researchers to get more involved in their data analysis and visualization with the development of Shiny web applications.”

While using Shiny applications (developed with R/RStudio) in research has become common in biostatistics and bioinformatics, it is not the only way to visualize data. The Research Informatics and Data Science team supports researchers through PowerBI, a Microsoft data visualization platform.

Sharing the knowledge

In addition to collaborating on a variety of research projects, the BCB also provides training and workshops for Children’s Mercy investigators and staff. BCB offers a year-long biostatistics class. The team also offers workshops on a variety of topics such as statistical analysis in R/RStudio. In the future, they plan on hosting other educational offerings and training sessions on data analysis related topics. 

The BCB sees education as a key part of their role at CMRI. 

“Compared to 20 years ago, research has become much more data intense,” said Dr. Fridley. “Helping researchers to develop some data analysis skills is key to enabling a rich research environment. With these workshops, we want to empower and prepare the next generation of researchers, especially our early-career researchers, fellows and junior faculty.”

The BCB is also keen on growing the future data scientists and biostatisticians. As part of this goal, the BCB team hosted six high school students through the STAR 2.0 (Summer Training in Academic Research) program for the last two summers. During the summer program, the BCB team introduces the students to a research project, how to analyze the data generated in the project with biostatistical methods in R/RStudio and how to make a Shiny web application using R/RStudio to visualize the data. The results from this interaction with high school students in the Kansas City area has been vastly rewarding to the BCB team.

"Seeing their curiosity spark and their confidence grow as they engage with real-world data and tools like R and Shiny reminds us why mentorship and early exposure to research are so important,” said George Quaye, PhD, Biostatistician II.

The BCB team

The BCB team includes research faculty members Emily Cramer, PhD; Brian Lee, MPH, PhD; Janelle Noel-MacDonnell, PhD; Hung-Wen (Henry) Yeh, PhD; and Dr. Fridley along with staff scientists Dr. Quaye; Irina Pushel, PhD; Joseph Varberg, PhD; Ashley Sherman, MA; David Williams, MPH; and Addison Pritchett, MS. Their extensive experience in biomedical research, bioinformatics and biostatistics make them an integral part of a researcher’s project team.

“The BCB team members are the most experienced set of individuals that I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” said Dr. Fridley. “I see my role as a research facilitator as one to enable the folks around me to be the best scientists they can be by providing them with what they need to be successful in their work.”

Future goals and growth

As Dr. Fridley looks to the future, she knows her team will continue to support research at Children’s Mercy as well as expanding the team to meet demand as the research program at the CMRI grows. Additionally, she plans to expand the breadth of the BCB core’s offerings to include bioinformatics services — supporting things such as whole genome sequencing and single-cell genomics — to meet the growing data analysis needs at CMRI. She would also like to expand educational opportunities for investigators, trainees and staff. 

Team science

Dr. Fridley is a big advocate of team science — a methodology that employs a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach to research — emphasizing that it enhances innovation, increases productivity and the ability to tackle complex problems that may be beyond the scope of an individual researcher.

“I think team science is about bringing different ideas together to work collaboratively on a problem or research question,” she said. “It can never harm a project but only make it better. We do this at Children’s Mercy, and I think we will continue to get more collaborations across the entire institution. Some individuals specialize in clinical care while others specialize in research — collectively, we can answer key research questions that will lead to improved care and wellbeing of children, their families and the community.”

You can read more about our translational research efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of children and so much more in the FY25 Research Annual Report.