A New Method To Identify Mutated Genes In Human Diseases

Researchers from the University of Turin, Italy and the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, have devised a new method that may help the medical
community to determine the genetic basis of many common diseases. Their findings are described in an article published March 28th in the open-access
journal PLoS Computational Biology.



Thousands of human diseases originate from mutations in one or more genes. Identification of mutated genes is a crucial first step towards
understanding the molecular mechanisms at the origin of diseases and devising a treatment. In many cases, we do not know the identity of the affected
gene, only a chromosomal region (typically containing hundred of genes) in which the mutation is located.



The research group, led by Ferdinando Di Cunto and Paolo Provero, analyzed gene expression data (patterns of gene activity in tissues and cell lines)
from thousands of published experiments to identify genes showing patterns comparable to the ones of mutated genes in similar diseases. The study
identified candidate genes for 81 diseases, including various forms of epilepsy and muscular dystrophy



As in all such analyses, the results must be verified experimentally. However, the task of understanding the molecular basis of many diseases could be
significantly simplified by the results of this work.



Prediction of Human Disease Genes by Human-Mouse Conserved Coexpression Analysis.
Ala U, Piro RM, Grassi E, Damasco C, Silengo L, et al. (2008)

PLoS Comput Biol 4(3): e1000043. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000043

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