CFDE Fall 2025 Meeting Recap
Meeting Report

CFDE Fall 2025
Meeting Infographic

A visual summary of the Fall 2025 Meeting. Highlighting progress in Biomarker Integration, AI Readiness (MCP Servers), and the future of our data ecosystem.

CFDE Fall 2025 Attendees Group Photo

Conference Overview

A snapshot of the CFDE Fall 2025 Meeting’s scale and engagement.

75+
Registered Attendees
15+
Sessions & Breakouts
4.8/5
Participant Satisfaction
5
Centers Represented
18+
DCCs/Programs

Agenda & Summaries

A chronological overview of the meeting sessions, highlighting key discussions, presentations, and outcomes.

Day 1: Partnerships, AI & Data Integration

October 27, 2025

Welcome

9:00 AM
  • Welcome address highlighting progress on platform development, community outreach, and the strategic focus on AI and partnerships.
Speakers: Jake Chen

Update on FY 24-25 CFDE Partnerships

9:10 AM
  • Biomarker Project: Data modeling, harmonization of clinical/molecular data, and AI query assistants.
  • Biomedical Data Collaboration: Updates from Uniprod, IMPC, and CM4AI.
  • Data Distillery: Expanding knowledge graphs for childhood cancer and structural birth defects.
Speakers: Raja, Partnership Leads

Center Updates

11:00 AM
  • DRC: New Python toolkit for metadata, cross-dataset enrichment analysis, and Workbench updates.
  • KC: ‘CFDE Reveal’ hypothesis generation feature.
  • Training: Mentoring program launch and FY26 visualization competition planning.
  • CWIC: Progress on public deployment and Galaxy workflow support.

Data Ingestion and Analysis

1:30 PM
  • Challenges in Clinical Data Standardization: Bridge2AI and AI-ready datasets (Chorus, AI Ready).
  • Croissant Metadata: Implementing the 4-layer metadata format for Machine Learning readiness.
  • MCP-LLM Integration: Building Modern Context Protocol servers for DCCs to enable chatbot queries.
Speakers: Tim Clark, Ido Diamant

Breakouts

3:30 PM
  • Uniprot User Engagement (Philadelphia Room)
  • Biomarker Partnership (Chicago Room): Use case collection.
  • MCP Discussion (Ballroom): Integrating MCP servers with APIs.

Day 2: Working Groups & Strategic Planning

October 28, 2025

Recap and Day 2 Logistics

8:45 AM

Logistics update and summary of Day 1.

Working Group Breakouts

9:00 AM
  • Ontology (Atlanta Room)
  • Knowledge Graph (Philadelphia Room)
  • Training (Chicago Room)
  • Communications and Outreach (Grand Ballroom)

Product and Tool Highlights

10:45 AM

Demonstrations including Cloud Workspace with MotorPak data and new metadata tools.

Breakout Sessions

1:00 PM
  • Sustainability (Atlanta Room)
  • Galaxy Demo (Philadelphia Room)
  • CFDE Incubator (Chicago Room)

Evaluation

2:00 PM

Discussion on evaluation metrics and measuring the impact of CFDE.

Cross-Cutting Themes & Resources

Analyzing the composition of our community and the primary focus areas.

Attendee Roles (%)

Primary Resource Interests

Roadmap & Future

Strategic priorities for the next 6-12 months.

Omics Open House

Planned

Training Center to launch in Winter 2025 with experts from GTEx, HuBMAP, etc.

Mentoring Program

Planned

Applications launching Dec 2025; recruiting DCC volunteers as mentors.

MCP Server Integration

In Progress

DCCs to build Modern Context Protocol servers to enable AI Chatbot integration.

CFDE Marker Paper

In Progress

Finalizing authorship and content for submission; aiming for 2027 Council of Councils impact.

Uniprot Cell Maps

Planned

Integrate first set of cell maps in early 2026 with direct links to Cytoscape.

Get Involved

The roadmap is driven by community feedback. Join a working group to shape these outcomes.

Participant Feedback

Impressions from the Fall 2025 gathering based on post-meeting surveys.

Satisfaction Scores (Out of 5)

“This was the best venue by far for the meeting.”

– Attendee Feedback

“The working group meetings and also the overview and experience with new tools (e.g. MCP) were most valuable.”

– Attendee Feedback

“Excellent job! A breakout session on developing new usecases with tools/resources would be great.”

– Attendee Feedback

Summary

  • Venue and food received exceptional ratings.
  • Strong appreciation for the MCP and Tool Demonstration sessions.
  • Request for mid-week scheduling to ease travel logistics.
  • High awareness of CFDE resources among attendees.

Moving Forward Together

The CFDE Fall 2025 meeting reaffirmed our commitment to a sustainable data ecosystem. By addressing key challenges in AI readiness and leveraging strategic partnerships, we are poised to accelerate biomedical discovery.