Engineers at Johns Hopkins University have designed an innovative computer software capable of sifting through hundreds of genetic mutations to highlight the DNA changes that are most likely to promote cancer.
The engineers' goal is to provide critical help to researchers who are poring over numerous newly discovered gene mutations, many of which are harmless or have no connection to cancer. According to its inventors, the new software will enable these scientists to focus more of their attention on the mutations most likely to trigger tumors.
A description of the method and details of a test using it on brain cancer DNA were published in the August 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
"It's very expensive and time-consuming to test a huge number of gene mutations, trying to find the few that have a solid link to cancer," says Rachel Karchin, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering who supervised the development of the computational sorting approach. "Our new screening system should dramatically speed up efforts to identify genetic cancer risk factors and help find new targets for cancer-fighting medications."
The new computational method is called CHASM, short for Cancer-specific High-throughput Annotation of Somatic Mutations.
Writer: Walaika Haskins
Source: Rachel Karchin, Johns Hopkins University