Abstract

Most cancer genes remain functionally uncharacterized in the physiological context of disease development. High-throughput molecular profiling and interaction studies are increasingly being used to identify clusters of functionally linked gene products related to neoplastic cell processes. However, in vivo determination of cancer-gene function is laborious and inefficient, so accurately predicting cancer-gene function is a significant challenge for oncologists and computational biologists alike. How can modern computational and statistical methods be used to reliably deduce the function(s) of poorly characterized cancer genes from the newly available genomic and proteomic datasets? We explore plausible solutions to this important challenge.

Author affiliations

1. Program in Proteomics and Bioinformatics, Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2. Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
3. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
4. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Correspondence to: Andrew Emili^1,2 Email: andrew.emili@utoronto.ca

Published online 14 December 2006

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