Brian Desany | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Sensitive mutation detection in heterogeneous cancer specimens by massively parallel picoliter reactor sequencing.

The sensitivity of conventional DNA sequencing in tumor biopsies is limited by stromal contamination and by genetic heterogeneity within the cancer. Here, we show that microreactor-based pyrosequencing can detect rare cancer-associated sequence variations by independent and parallel sampling of multiple representatives of a given DNA fragment. This technology can thereby facilitate accurate molecular diagnosis of heterogeneous cancer specimens and enable patient selection for targeted cancer therapies.

Base Sequence↗

PubMed2004

Bioinformatics and cancer target discovery.

The convergence of genomic technologies and the development of drugs designed against specific molecular targets provides many opportunities for using bioinformatics to bridge the gap between biological knowledge and clinical therapy. Identifying genes that have properties similar to known targets is conceptually straightforward. Additionally, genes can be linked to cancer via recurrent genomic or genetic abnormalities. Finally, by integrating large and disparate datasets, gene-level distinctions can be made between the different biological states that the data represents. These bioinformatics approaches and their associated methodologies, which can be applied across a range of technologies, facilitate the rapid identification of new target leads for further experimental validation.

Analysis of Variance↗