Disease modelling through biological networks: Identification of driver mutations in cancer genomes

Research Group

Nagasuma Chandra and N. Srinivasan

Department of Biochemistry, IISc and Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc

Cancers are caused by genome alterations such as gene mutations and copy number variations. The set of mutations can vary enormously in different individuals having the same disease. Some of these variations are causal while others are either consequential or have little significance to disease. A major challenge is to identify those driver mutations from the entire set of variations. A large amount of genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic data have become available in the recent years, due to advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing methods. We are interested in exploring different modelling approaches to gain insights into global variations in disease, broad disease mechanisms and identifying such mutations in key proteins. We will develop novel methods based on protein interaction networks, considering high-level patient heterogeneity and apply them in selected cancer systems. We expect this to result in a diagnostic level prioritization of mutated genes and pave way for new-age precision medicine, where a patient’s mutational profile can be identified and used to guide treatment.