Meet the speaker
If you want to meet Dr. Colm Ryan, please book a time slot at https://doodle.com/poll/exqkpxpdr4taehhr and send an email to anthony.mathelier@ncmm.uio.no.
Abstract
Genetic interactions associated with cancer driver genes can now be systematically identified using genetic perturbation screens. Despite this, few genetic interactions have been reproduced across multiple studies and many appear highly context-specific. Understanding which genetic interactions are robust in the face of the molecular heterogeneity observed in tumours and what factors influence this robustness could streamline the identification of therapeutic targets. Here we describe a computational approach that identifies robust genetic interactions by integrating multiple large-scale genetic perturbation screens. Of >140,000 potential genetic interactions evaluated, we identified 1,520 that are significant in at least one experiment, but only 220 that reproduce across multiple studies. This analysis also demonstrated that: (i) oncogene addiction effects are more robust than oncogene-related synthetic lethal effects; and (ii) that robust genetic interactions in cancer are enriched for gene pairs whose protein products physically interact, suggesting that protein-protein interaction networks may be used to prioritise robust genetic interactions for further development.
Junior talk
Jørgen Ankill, research assistant in the group Epigenomics of Breast Cancer at the Institute for Cancer Research will present his work.