The Open Commons Consortium (OCC) presented the Murtha Cancer Center Data Platform ( MC2DP) at the Prometheus Retreat in Washington, D.C. on July 24 2026, where project collaborators gathered to review progress and demonstrate key platform capabilities supporting cancer research and data sharing.
During the retreat, Dr. Robert Grossman (University of Chicago and OCC), Dr. Nhan Do (Boston VA), Dr. Aarti Venkat (University of Chicago), and Dr. Theodore Feldman (Boston VA) presented updates on the MC2DP initiative and demonstrated several components of the platform.
The demonstrations highlighted the MC2DP Data Hub, Secure Workspaces, and mesh-based architecture that enable researchers to discover data, create cohorts, and perform analyses in secure environments. The team also showcased recent milestones, including preparing data and workspaces for beta use by the RCC Pilot, developing a secure storage and exchange environment for proteomics and metabolomics data, and onboarding additional datasets across the data mesh.
A key accomplishment highlighted during the retreat was the approval and implementation of the MC2DP Platform Governance framework, which establishes processes for secure interoperability while allowing participating repositories to maintain their own governance policies.
MC2DP is a collaborative effort involving OCC, the Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS) at the University of Chicago, the Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC), the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine at Windber, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Ellison Institute, and other partners working to advance precision oncology research through FAIR and interoperable data-sharing technologies.
The retreat provided an opportunity for project partners to showcase progress, strengthen collaboration, and continue advancing a secure, interoperable platform for cancer research.
