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Computational Method for Cancer Drug Development
Study in a Sentence: Researchers used a mathematical method to convert genome-wide data on gene expression and epigenetic modifications (i.e., DNA modifications that regulate gene expression) from a human cancer stem cell line to a readily analyzable format and applied it to identify critical genes relating to cancer development and drug resistance.
Healthy for Humans: The new computational approach can be used to assess the effectiveness of drugs for human cancers and identify new targets for cancer therapeutic development.
Redefining Research: They were able to apply their method to identify a novel therapeutic target (TRAF4) for human gastrointestinal cancers that was previously studied in a mouse model. Thus, their method may serve to replace animals in cancer drug testing and development.
References
- Konno M, Matsui H, Koseki J, et al. Computational trans-omics approach characterised methylomic and transcriptomic involvements and identified novel therapeutic targets for chemoresistance in gastrointestinal cancer stem cells. Sci Rep. 2018;8:899. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19284-3
