breast-cancer
New lab platform mimics how breast cancer cells choose which organs to invade Researchers have developed an ex vivo invasion assay that uses real mouse organ tissue — lungs, liver, and intestine — stripped of cells but with the extracellular matrix (ECM) intact, then sliced and loaded into microfluidic channels. Cancer cells
project-idea
Cancer Equity Map: County-Level Socio-Behavioral Risk by Race and Cancer Type High-mortality cancer counties within racial groups have distinct domain-specific socio-behavioral profiles — meaning effective cancer equity interventions need county-level, race-specific, domain-level targeting, not broad demographic averages. Build an interactive map of U.S. counties showing cancer mortality and socio-behavioral risk
project-idea
Thin Melanoma Recurrence Risk Calculator Age >65, ulceration, and mitotic rate ≥1/mm² independently predict T1 melanoma recurrence within 2 years in the largest multi-site study of its kind — three factors any dermatologist already has at diagnosis. Build a simple, open-access clinical decision support calculator for thin (T1) melanoma
project-idea
PIES Score Calculator: Pancreatic Cancer Subtype from ctDNA Epigenomics PIES (Pancreatic Integrated Epigenomic Score) can determine whether a patient's pancreatic cancer is classical or basal-like — predicting treatment response — from a blood draw, without biopsy. Build an open-source implementation of the PIES scoring pipeline that takes cfDNA epigenomic profiling
project-idea
BF-BOLD Trial Simulator: Interactive Phase I Dose-Finding Tool The BF-BOLD design improves safety and activity assessment in Phase I trials without complex statistical modeling — but adoption requires trial teams to understand and simulate the design before committing to it. Build an open-source, browser-based simulator for the BF-BOLD (and comparison BOLD/
project-idea
GBM Recurrence Resistance Tracker: Open Registry for Matched Tumor Models The 'resistant GSC families' platform generates within-patient matched models of chemo vs. radiation resistance from the same tumor — but there's no shared registry where labs can pool and compare these models across institutions. Build an open
project-idea
GBM Subtype Classifier + Targeted Therapy Recommender HVEM is selectively expressed in mesenchymal GBM, and its inhibition hits both direct tumor growth and immune evasion via BTLA — but only in the mesenchymal subtype, making subtype identification clinically critical. Build a lightweight GBM molecular subtype classifier that takes RNA-seq or NanoString expression
project-idea
Cell Cycle Phase–Invasion Window Simulator for Metastasis Research Invadopodia-mediated invasion is cell cycle phase-dependent and shifts as EMT progresses — meaning the window when a cancer cell is most invasive can be predicted based on its EMT state. Build an interactive educational and research tool that visualizes the relationship between
project-idea
Tumor Board Prep Assistant: LLM-Powered Variant Briefing Generator The CIViC MCP server enables natural language queries to expert-curated cancer variant interpretations — meaning clinicians can now ask plain-English questions and get synthesized answers about a patient's tumor mutations. Build a clinical workflow tool that takes a patient's
project-idea
Spliceosome Disruption Atlas: Natural Compounds × Cancer Crocin (from saffron) consistently downregulates spliceosomal machinery genes across all time points in liver cancer cells — a mechanism relevant to over 90% of cancers, yet largely untargeted by approved drugs. Build a curated, searchable database of natural compounds with documented effects on spliceosome machinery
project-idea
RB1-Loss Drug Repurposing Navigator for DLBCL GAK inhibition is tumor-selective in RB1-deficient DLBCL, and OTS167 — already in human trials for solid tumors — potently hits GAK. This opens a rapid repurposing path gated on a single biomarker. Build a web tool that maps approved and late-stage investigational drugs to their off-target
breast-cancer
High-mortality cancer counties within racial groups have distinct socioeconomic profiles — not just worse averages of the same problems Racial disparities in breast and prostate cancer mortality are well documented at the population level, but this hides important variation within racial and ethnic groups. A county in which Black women have
