Rapid, Inexpensive DNA Sequencing Moves Closer to Reality
Friday, February 19, 2010 - 12:42
in Biology & Nature
As efforts such as The Cancer Genome Atlas and others generate vast quantities of information about the genetic makeup of different types of cancer, it is becoming increasingly clear that such information has great potential for determining which anticancer drugs should be used to treat a specific patient. However, realizing that potential will require not only that cancer researchers uncover the links between specific gene changes in a given tumor and that tumor's response to a specific drug therapy, but that technologists develop faster methods of detecting specific mutations that would be economical to use on individual patients.