Center for Systems Immunology

With the explosion of data from genome studies and molecular profiling technologies, huge amounts of biological information are now available. Scientists in this Center use complex systems theory and high throughput techniques as well as mathematical and computational tools to understand the functioning of the immune system in health and disease.

Leadership

Peter S. Linsley, PhD
Center Director, Systems Immunology, 
Associate Member, BRI

Charlie Quinn
Director of Research Information Systems

Bioinformatics Group

The BRI Bioinformatics Group comprises computational biologists and biostatisticians, with access to a high-performance computing infrastructure and specialized software to support processing, analyzing and visualizing data from heterogeneous sources, including BRI and Virginia Mason laboratories.

Data Management & Software Development Group

Our Data Management & Software Development Group has created an extensive data infrastructure to provide our scientists with flexible acquisition and query-based access to ever increasing amounts of research data. Our systems are designed to link with advanced bioinformatics analysis tools, where the co-location of data and scalable computational power is sometimes advantageous.

Included in our system are a collection of secure web-based applications:

  • Sample Repository
  • Participant Disease Registries
  • Laboratory LIMS Systems
  • Study Modifications and Gatekeeper
  • Study specific iPhone & Android applications for data capture
  • Mobile participant survey capture
  • Automated data exchange with Hospital EMR Systems (Cerner)
  • Automated data exchange with clinical laboratories

We are committed to free distribution of our datasets, and code. Upon publication, we deposit supporting data files into public repositories like Immport and GEO. In many cases we share our application and analysis code via GitHub.

Core Laboratories

Genomics Core
Provides resources to BRI and external investigators for gene expression analysis, from sample processing through data generation. Currently available technologies include RNA-sequencing, ATAC-seq and Cut & Tag.

Research Laboratories

Linsley Laboratory
Systems biology approaches to advancing immunotherapy

Presnell & Altman Laboratory
Advancing the understanding of childhood allergies

Bolouri Laboratory
Decoding the immune system using computational systems biology approaches

Ray Laboratory
Identifying the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms for variance in human immune responses

Mandelson Laboratory
Research directed at pancreas cancer early detection and outcomes

Staff Members