The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : India to play a major role in ‘Global Cancer Genome Project’

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

India to play a major role in ‘Global Cancer Genome Project’

Y. Mallikarjun

‘Information can provide drug targets and help in classifying the tumours’
Research across nine countries for genetic study of 50 different cancers

HYDERABAD: India will play a major role in identifying genes responsible for oral cancer as part of the ‘Global Cancer Genome Project,’ an international effort by research bodies across nine countries for a comprehensive genetic study of 50 different cancers.

Partners

The Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), a leading cancer research institute ACTREC of Mumbai and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata are the Indian partners of the global project.

New genes

The Indian initiative costing $ 25 million would take off in a few months. Pointing out India was having one of the highest incidences of oral cancer, CDFD Director J. Gowrishankar told The Hindu that the idea behind the global effort was to identify new genes.

Samples

The Indian partnership is being coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology.

While ACTREC would collect the tumour samples and build the patient data, the CDFD would undertake whole genomic analysis, including genome sequencing on DNA isolated from the samples, according to Murali Dharan Bashyam, who is heading the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, CDFD. The scientists would identify genes that have higher or lower copies than those in the normal tissue as they play an important role in tumour progression.

“They could be important drug targets”, he added.

An analysis of gene expression and methylation profiling would also be undertaken. Explaining that gene expression was nothing but making of a protein by a gene, Dr. Bashyam said some genes produce higher amount of proteins or lesser in the tumour when compared to the normal tissue in the same individual. This information can provide drug targets and help in classifying the tumours”. Specific drugs could be produced to prevent protein formation. In case of lesser proteins, a synthetic molecule could be made to mimic the activity of the protein. Apart from helping to identify novel drug targets and develop molecular therapies, the study would also enable patient classification.

Diagnosis

Molecular profiling would provide a more accurate diagnosis of the condition and facilitate in designing optimum treatment protocol.

U.S.A., Britain, Canada, France, China, Australia, Japan and Singapore are the other countries involved in the project.

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