Nature Communications - It is now well known that cancer is an extremely heterogeneous disease since it may develop in many different ways. Its genetic diversity is a major challenge for cancer drug discovery. A team of British and American researchers discovered that, thanks to its genetic complexity, Drosophila is an ideal model system for functional exploration of human cancer genomes. They are now able to generate personalized Drosophila multigenic models of colorectal cancer, using patient data, that can be useful for the development of new targeted therapies.

 

Functional exploration of colorectal cancer genomes using Drosophila

 

Authors: Erdem Bangi, Claudio Murgia, Alexander G.S. Teague, Owen J. Sansom & Ross L. Cagan

Nature Communications 7 - doi:10.1038/ncomms13615 - 29 November 2016