So researchers in the UK brought in the big guns – bioinformatics.

Cancer Research UK has set up seven British centers to start collecting 9,000 tumor samples from a wide range of cancer patients to create a DNA database. Researchers will extract DNA from these tumors and scan them for a series of key genes involved in tumor development. The results will then be cross-checked against a range of cancer treatments, to create a map of which treatments work best for cancers associated with which particular genes.

This is based on the concept of pharmacogenomics: certain genes predispose people to respond to certain drugs in certain ways. We can already test a cancer patient for a single gene, knowing how tumors with that gene respond to a particular drug. However currently we don’t have a way of testing a broad panel of genes. And to compound the problem, we don’t have a way of quickly and accurately sharing information between labs in the same city, across the country or internationally.

Again, enter the power of bioinformatics.

With the proposed cancer DNA database, a doctor might analyze a patient’s tumor sample and prescribe a tailored treatment plan within a very short period of time, perhaps as little as two weeks.

As Professor Matthew Seymour, director of the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) in the UK, recently stated, “We have to get clever about how to target drugs. Medications for cancer have to be personalized because no two cancers are identical.”

Bioinformatics research is increasing at an exponential rate. DNA sequences are available to anyone with an Internet connection – along with free bioinformatics tools to explore sequence data, predict the presence of genes, and compare features shared between organisms.

The DNALC has been working in DNA sequencing and bioinformatics for over a decade, developing intuitive, visually appealing computer tools for teachers and students to quickly learn the rudiments of gene analysis and integrate bioinformatics with biochemistry labs.

If you want to find out more, check out:

• G2C Online Bioinformatics section
• DNAi: Applications > Genes and medicine > Genetic profiling
• Gene Boy, a fun, intuitive Flash interface to analyze DNA sequences.
• Sequence Server, a database and personal workspace for students to conduct phylogenetic analyses using their own DNA sequences.
• DNA Subway, a platform that uses the metaphor of a subway network to provide students access to various bioinformatics workflows.

Pharmacogenomics is the ability to study the differences in the DNA of a person to see how they are going to respond to a certain drug.  The DNA contains instructions on how to make proteins.  These proteins then go on to carry out life’s basic functions.  A disorder that may result because of changes in the production of these proteins resulting from mutations in the DNA has been a major area of research for some time.  But now we have to look into how some of these proteins are interacting with the medications that we are taking to treat the disorder.  It is a major shift in the way many people think about DNA and how it affects our health.

Pharmacogenomics is a relatively new area of science that is now looking into these differences in the DNA that cause a person to respond to a drug in a certain way, if at all.  There are a whole group of proteins that are in charge of metabolizing, or breaking down, the medications we take into their active forms.  The instructions in the DNA that make these proteins are different from person to person, so it is these variations that will either make a person make more of the proteins, less, or none at all.  These different levels then cause a person to respond to a drug in a certain way.

For example, if a patient is taking the blood thinner Warfarin to treat blood clots, and they are making too much of the protein that metabolizes this drug, they will break it down too fast and this could possibly thin the blood too much.  If they are a patient that either makes less or none of this protein, the clots will still form, which could still cause serious problems for that patient.  So if we could gather all of the variations in the DNA that lead to certain reactions to drugs, we could use this information to better treat future patients.

A DNA test could be done before the medication is prescribed.  If a patient is showing a similar variation in the DNA to a previous patient that was not able to metabolize a drug, the doctor may want to think twice about prescribing that drug to their patient.  Since we now know that one size does NOT fit all, studying the variations in the DNA to see how their patients will respond to certain drugs will help in prescribing the correct drug and at the right dose.

Featured image from: http://www.genomicslawreport.com/index.php/tag/personalized-medicine/

Any individual has a unique genetic profile different from that of another person. Contained within these differences are unique genetic variations that may make a person more susceptible to diseases such as cancer and diabetes. There are genetic profiling centers that can assist you in identifying your genetic variations. With this information you and your physician can watch your health where it is at risk to becoming a problem and mold a life style toward prolonged health. In order to decrease the impact of a possible problem, it is important that you’re analysis be broad-spectrum and precise. It will be of great interest to identify the premier centers for analysis of genetic variants. Be curious and talk with your physician about the resources that will give you the edge in enhancing your quality of life.

Just recently, a group of researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a variant of a gene that is believed to play a major role in determining why people do not respond to a popular anti-clotting medication. This gene variant, carried by as many as a third of the general population can put patients at increased risk for subsequent heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular problems. The interesting thing is, that this increased risk is not due to patients genetic predisposition for these disorders, but because it renders their medication ineffective.

Medicines that we introduce into our bodies often require one or several important mechanisms to unfold their intended effects: they may have to be actively transported into our cells, biochemically altered and thereby activated, or they may require deactivation and/or removal in order to not do more harm then good. Any of these processes may involve proteins on one level or another and, therefore, depend on genes. Thus, as we have maps that indicate the loci associated with genetic disorders (visit Tour > genome spots in DNA Interactive), we will soon have maps that tell us where to look if we wish to know our predisposition to the medications we use to cure ailments: whether they will do us any good, are totally useless or, in a worst case scenario, can even harm us.