Recommended

Learn how to optimize antibody leads in early drug discovery in this upcoming webinar – register today
Discover how to overcome low affinity or poor TCR yields that are slowing you down in this upcoming webinar – register your details today
Unlock the science, strategy and real-world impact behind the next generation of precision therapies – access our new brand report now >>
Safety data is no longer just a regulatory checkbox – it’s a strategic advantage. Find out more in our upcoming webinar, register your details today
Explore how AI is reshaping early drug discovery, from target identification and compound screening to predictive modelling and trial design – register now!
news

Computational model identifies new candidate cancer genes

A novel computational method has led to the discovery of genes whose alteration may contribute to cancer susceptibility and may lead to new therapeutic targets for cancers.

A novel computational method could lead to new therapeutic targets for numerous cancers, according to the developers. 

The programme is an integration of Epi-DNA and Gene Expression (iEDGE) – whose application to the analysis of over 8,500 tumour profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas has led to the discovery of genes whose alteration (mutation or copy number alteration) may contribute to cancer susceptibility.

The researchers, from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), US, have said that iEDGE identified several candidate breast cancer drivers, including RBM17 (a splicing factor amplified in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer) and SIRT3 (a candidate tumor suppressor and a promising therapeutic target).

 

Reserve your FREE place

 


Reduce preclinical failures with smarter off-target profiling

24 September 2025 | 15:00PM BST | FREE Webinar

Join this webinar to hear from Dr Emilie Desfosses as she shares insights into how in vitro and in silico methods can support more informed, human-relevant safety decisions -especially as ethical and regulatory changes continue to reshape preclinical research.

What you’ll learn:

  • Approaches for prioritizing follow-up studies and refining risk mitigation strategies
  • How to interpret hit profiles from binding and functional assays
  • Strategies for identifying organ systems at risk based on target activity modulation
  • How to use visualization tools to assess safety margins and compare compound profiles

Register Now – It’s Free!

 

It also identified multiple candidate pan-cancer drivers, including TRIP13 (previously shown to promote tumour growth in colorectal cancer and a predictor of poor prognosis in prostate cancer), ORAOV1 (a gene over-expressed in many solid tumours) and TPX2 (a potent oncogene amplified in many cancers and a promising therapeutic target), among others.

“While further functional studies will be needed to evaluate the therapeutic relevance of our findings, these results study show the efficacy of iEDGE at identifying candidate drivers and potentially novel targets for therapy,” explained corresponding author Stefano Monti, PhD, associate professor of medicine at BUSM.

The researchers reported their findings in Nature.