Rice and M. D. Anderson establish Center for Computational Cance...( HOUSTON--JAN. 22 2004 -- Rice Universi...)

Using their own funding, the two universities have created The Gulf Coast Center for Computational Cancer Research. The center was formed under the auspices of the Gulf Coast Consortium for Bioinformatics.

While other cancer centers around the nation are turning to computer scientists to assist their investigations, this center is unique in the scope of projects planned by scientists at Rice and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

For example, center scientists plan to improve the design of clinical trials of novel therapies by using computers to simulate the trials before they begin. Then, as the trial is under way, real time data can be collected and analyzed, and changes can be made in the trial design as promising results are obtained. Such flexibility would offer patients the best therapies as soon as possible.

The center's work will further build on advances in analysis technologies that enable the assembly of large databases of detailed profiles of genes and proteins obtained from cancer patients. These databases will include a broad range of profiles, beginning with precancerous lesions and continuing to metastasized tumors through treatment and into remission. Analyzing these profiles, researchers can identify the specific mutations that cause different cancers, create tests for each possible variation, and design patient-specific treatments.

"The rapid advance of technology has created a number of opportunities for understanding the causes of cancer and its treatment, but each of these opportunities requires the development of custom, high-performance software that can run efficiently on modern supercomputers," said Ken Kennedy, John and Ann Doerr University Professor at Rice and co-director of the center.
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Contact: Margot Dimond
mdimond@rice.edu
713-348-6775
Rice University
22-Jan-2004