NCSA has always provided more than just compute resources. The experts at NCSA are collaborators and partners in research. They often continue to work with campus researchers throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. That type of long-term research assistance is exemplified in the output of NCSA’s Aiman Soliman, who has worked closely with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign food science and human nutrition professor Zeynep Madak-Erdogan for several years.
NCSA and Illinois – Partners in Research
Their work began when Soliman paired his geospatial big data expertise with Madak-Erdogan, who specializes in nutrition and cancer research. While you might not immediately connect geospatial mapping to cancer research, Aiman used his expertise to help Madak-Erdogan’s team “map” tumors in lung cancer research in one of their earlier collaborative efforts.
Techniques that Dr. Soliman’s group developed enabled us to perform reliable molecular analysis in a very small amount of very precious clinical samples.
professor, U. of I.
They built on their work, developing a unique methodology that incorporated novel spatial analysis for their next big project: working with a coalition of medical and research experts at various institutions to support a new UIC maternal research center to determine the root cause of healthcare disparities in maternal mortality.
Madak-Erdogan and Soliman have continued this productive collaboration into 2026, and their team recently published findings in the journal Cancer Research. This work extends the foundational mapping of tumors by establishing a pipeline to characterize gene expression heterogeneity in tumors and other biological tissues.
A Biological GPS
Soliman and Madak-Erdogan’s research paper focuses on building a new tool called GIS-ROTA. This new tool helps scientists better understand the complex internal “map” of tumors. It combines biological information with geographic mapping technology to show exactly where different activities are happening inside a cancer sample.
Traditional methods of studying tumors often group cancer cells into clusters based on statistical similarity, which can be hard to interpret. GIS-ROTA works backward: first identifying specific biological functions (such as how a cell uses energy or responds to hormones), then mapping exactly where those functions are located.
This new method improves accuracy. Soliman’s work in geospatial analysis makes him very familiar with the use of spatial statistics to identify structures from spatial noise. In geography, this metric is used to find hotspots for things like traffic accidents or pollution. The team of researchers applied this same method to find “biological hotspots” within a tumor. With this functionality, GIS-ROTA can determine whether certain biological activities are actually co-occurring in the same neighborhood or whether they appear to co-occur by random chance.
“This framework will enable the identification of spatial signatures where multiple biological circuits converge within tissues, revealing how these patterns differ across cancer types, tumor locations and treatment conditions,” said Soliman.
Personalized Treatment for Better Results
Despite all of us having the same basic components, every body is different. Everything from what we eat to where we live can change the physical and chemical makeup of our cells in slightly different ways. This is also true of the tumors that may grow inside the body. Many variables can play a part in tumor growth.
The GIS-ROTA tool helps map the internal structure of a tumor. If scientists can clearly visualize the architecture of a tumor through functional imaging, they can customize treatment and move beyond the “one-size-fits-all” approach of most treatments. Researchers could see how different treatments affect different parts of a single tumor.
“GIS-ROTA lets us study what’s actually happening in distinct regions of a tumor, which biological pathways are present, how they’re correlated and where they converge,” said Madak-Erdogan. “It also allows us to do this with very small tissue samples, which is essential when working with clinical material that isn’t always available in large quantities. Beyond tumor architecture, the principles and tools we developed can help us understand how location shapes disease more broadly, from how neighborhood factors influence disease burden to applications across other health conditions.”
The Impact of Partnership
Madak-Erdogan and Soliman’s work shows the power of partnership with NCSA. This team was brought together through NCSA’s Health Innovation Program Office (HIPO), which provides strategic alignment and coordination across NCSA’s health projects and initiatives, connecting them with related research across the University of Illinois and supporting the university’s mission in health and wellness.
When collaboration across disciplines occurs, new approaches are often discovered, as in this case, where they’re using geospatial methods in cancer research. Their collaboration has been highly impactful, and the results prove that.
“One of HIPO’s objectives is to connect scientists across disciplines with the expertise at NCSA, and our office has been proud to support this work from its early stages,” said Maria Jaromin, HIPO’s interim director. “The collaboration between geospatial data science and nutrition and cancer research highlights how nontraditional partnerships can lead to innovative approaches and meaningful scientific breakthroughs.”
ABOUT HIPO
Established in 2020, NCSA’s Healthcare Innovation Program Office (HIPO) enables healthcare partnerships that leverage NCSA’s dedicated technology and expertise in areas such as HPC, software development, visualization, data analytics, AI and information security. HIPO guides industry clients and academic researchers to solutions and expertise that meet their computing needs. The people of HIPO are proud partners and stewards of NCSA’s resources, poised to assist users on their journey with NCSA.