Researchers at Indiana University, Ohio State University and the University of Missouri have begun a five-year, $8 million project that will help doctors better understand the damage caused by breast and ovarian cancers.

Funded by the National Cancer Institute, the project will bring together clinical and basic science cancer researchers at the IU School of Medicine and the IU Cancer Center in Indianapolis and the Medical Sciences Program in Bloomington, as well as IU biostatisticians and biomedical informaticians who specialize in organizing biological and medical information.

"The purpose of this project is to capitalize on all the human genome data and powerful bioinformatics approaches out there," said IU cancer biologist Kenneth Nephew, who is leading one of the cancer project's four parts. "In the end, we believe our work will lead to better therapies for ovarian and breast cancer patients."

The researchers will study the genetic and molecular consequences of DNA modifications for the purpose of developing better predictive models for ovarian and breast cancer.

SOURCE:
Indiana University (http://www.indiana.edu)