New Algorithm Can ID Critical Cancer Mutations in DNA
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Most people probably know facial recognition as the thing that unlocks your smartphone. But this technology could also be used as a tool in the fight against cancer, according to a new study. A team of researchers from University College London and the University of California, San Diego have developed an algorithm that works kind of like facial recognition – except instead of identifying faces, it picks out cancer mutations in DNA. These mutations – what geneticists call "copy number changes" – are linked to different outcomes, some better and some worse, even among patients with the same cancer type.
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@angana Cancer is caused by DNA mutations, or, more simply put, "mistakes." Some are tiny – like when just one letter of genomic code is off. These are "relatively easy to interpret," Pillay says. But copy number changes are bigger. If your DNA is a book, copy number changes mean whole words, sentences, or entire pages can be wrong.