Liquid Journal of Complex Systems

Article #3, version 9 March 2012, state: Liquid turbulent

A Success Story in the Science of Complex Systems: Identifying Novel Routes in Cancer Therapy

Authors: Martin Michaelis and Bernd Mayer

Abstract

This success story describes the contribution of the consortium ‘SYNLET’ to the understanding of cancer, putting together Complex Systems Science methodologies, computational and experimental molecular biology, and the concept of synthetic lethality. This approach addresses chemoresistance in cancer therapy, where the loss of efficacy of a given drug in the course of treatment represents a major obstacle for successful cancer therapy. Specifically, this novel approach involves the study of stability and robustness, molecular interaction networks, and therapy target identification and experimental verification. A computational workflow is used for identification of novel cancer targets by combining experimental base data, their analysis on the level of molecular interaction networks, followed by selection of key features potentially resembling an Achilles heel of cancer cells. The most remarkable results of SYNLET concern the identification of novel targets for overcoming chemoresistant neuroblastoma, as well as the first neuroblastoma candidate therapy targets grounded on the concept of synthetic lethality. The workflow of merging Omics data, the concept of synthetic lethality, and a computational network analysis procedure, provide from now on a good framework for identifying novel cancer targets in general.

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Received: 9 March 2012 | Updated: 9 March 2012 | Liquid turbulent since: 9 March 2012

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