Discover 1-2

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56 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

THE BROAD INSTITUTE OF MIT AND HARVARD

Mapping the

Monsters

❯

CANCER

CELLS ARE

NOTORIOUSLY

ADEPT AT SURVIVAL,

even exploiting

vulnerabilities within

an individual’s DNA

to multiply and spread.

In July, researchers at

the Broad Institute

mapped these

cancer-linked genetic

mutations, called

cancer dependencies,

for the first time.

“For decades, cancer

was a black box, and

we didn’t know which

genes were important,”

says research team

leader William Hahn

of the Dana-Farber

Cancer Institute.

“The goal with the

dependency map is

to identify genes of

consequence and

reverse engineer what

their action is, to devise

better therapies.”

The team uncovered

different kinds of

dependencies that

cancer cells exploit,

such as underactive

or overactive genes.

The Broad Institute’s

visualization of the

map, simplified here,

illuminates both

the complexity and

interconnectedness of

the genetic pathways

that fuel tumor growth.

— LINDA MARSA

The

inner ring's

different segments

each contain those

genetic mutations

that facilitate cancer

through a similar

mechanism, such as

errors in making

proteins.

Radiating

from the inner

ring, mutations

are grouped by more

specific shared traits,

such as those that cause

errors in making the

same kind of

proteins.

Much

like biologists

classifying living

organisms in ever-smaller

groups based on shared

traits, all the way down to

genus and species, the new cancer

dependencies map organizes

different genetic mutations by how

they allow cancer's development and

spread. In this visual representation

of the map, the inner ring

represents all identified

cancer-linked mutations.

KNOW THINE ENEMY: Mapping

genetic mutations based on

similarities in how they enable cancer

can help researchers identify potential

targets for new therapies.