What are some of the basic steps in taking a genomic alteration found as part of the TARGET project and “translating” it to the clinic?
Genomic characterization and resequencing efforts provide scientists with a list of candidate genes that are associated with the cancers being studied in TARGET. Genes provide the specific instructions for a cell to make proteins and these proteins do most of the “work” in a cell. When there is a change in the instructions coming from the gene through a change in the DNA, the cell may get the wrong instructions and be unable to make protein correctly. As a result, the protein may not work in the way it should. Since proteins control how a cell “works”, changes in proteins can ultimately impact how a cell behaves. Once scientists verify that the genomic change is associated with cancer cells, the impact of this specific change is studied in the laboratory. These functional studies seek to confirm that the identified genetic changes cause a change in the cell’s behavior consistent with cancer. For example, the change makes the cells divide too often, divide too quickly or survive when th
