The AstroPath project is an interdisciplinary collaboration made possible through the work of a bimodal team of research experts in the fields of data science—underpinned by a foundation in astronomy—and pathology, with additional contributions from external collaborators.

Pathology

Principal Investigator

Janis Taube, M.D., M.Sc.

Director of Division of Dermatopathology, Professor of Dermatology

These maps are imaged using the AstroPath platform and linked through the database to other available data on the specimens and patients, including DNA and RNA-based studies, radiologic images, and clinical data such as treatments received and patient outcomes.

Dr. Taube is a pathologist and one of the two PIs for AstroPath. She has developed and validated an approach for pinpointing ~40 immunoactive molecules across large areas of tumor tissue specimens.

Astronomy and Data Science

Principal Investigator

Alex Szalay, PhD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Director of the Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES)

Dr. Szalay is an astrophysicist who led the effort to build a large, open-access, spatially-resolved data portal for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

Drawing from the lessons learned over 25 years working on the SDSS SkyServer, Dr. Szalay has architected a data-management and analysis environment to process, host, and visualize the large-scale tumor-immune maps generated by Dr. Taube’s laboratory.

The Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science, headed by Dr. Szalay, supports the efforts of the AstroPath project by providing the expertise of data scientists and the resources of the institute’s data center.