Cell Rep: Functional dependence between key intermediary genes of different tumors

Researchers at the Wilmot Institute for Cancer Research have taken another step toward understanding the complex genetic interactions that cause cell malignancy

Discrete genetic mutations that drugs can target have only been identified in a small number of cancer types

One of the lead authors of this study, Dr.

"Targeting non-mutated proteins is a broader approach that can be used for many types of cancer," Land said, "but it is difficult to find these non-mutated, essential genes

This is why Land sought collaboration with Dr.

Land’s research team had previously discovered a very diverse set of non-mutant genes that are essential for cancer

McCall said: "There are too many interactions, and you may waste a lot of time, energy and money to test interactions that may be useless

Depending on the context, the number of possible gene network models considered by TopNet is many times greater than the estimated number of atoms in the universe

Land said: "This method essentially helps us sort out a hair ball in the gene network

The research team has tested the samples of gene interaction published by TopNet, and has confirmed that this interaction is functionally related through experiments on cells and mice

Article title

Gene network modeling via TopNet reveals functional dependencies between diverse tumor-critical mediator genes