Network-based identification of novel cancer genes

by Mr Gabriel Östlund (SBC. Stockholm University)

Wednesday 5 Nov 2008, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Stockholm

RB35 (RB35)

Genes involved in cancer susceptibility and progression can serve as templates for searching protein networks for novel cancer genes. We here introduce a new method to rank cancer gene candidates by their connectivity to known cancer genes. By using a comprehensive protein network, we searched for genes connected to a set of well-known cancer genes. The candidate list was refined by selecting genes with unexpectedly high levels of connectivity to cancer genes and without previous association to cancer. This produced a list of new cancer candidates, with up to 45 connections to known cancer genes. We validated our method by cross-validation, GO term bias, and differential expression in cancer vs. normal tissue. Some examples are presented with detailed pathway positioning of the new candidates. Our study provides a ranked list of high-priority targets for further studies in cancer research.