Gene chip
The overall aim of the division is to identify and characterize genetic risk and prognostic factors of cancer. The aim is pursued at two interactive levels: molecular and population.
At the molecular level association studies on candidate genes are increasingly replaced by genome-wide approaches using SNP arrays and deep DNA sequencing. These approaches require excellent samples, technology and bioinformatics. Among samples, we have, through collaborations, access to large numbers of DNAs from patients diagnosed with breast and colorectal cancers and melanoma, including samples from familial cases. Additionally, for survival studies samples from patients with a long follow-up are available. As genome-wide platforms we have access to both Affymetrix and Illumina technologies. High throughput sequencing is available at the core facility.
At the population level, we operate the world’s largest database on familial cancer, covering a population of close to twelve million with one million cancers. All family relationships are known in this population, which has been the main source of familial and genetic epidemiological literature on cancer through the past decade, worked out by a team of statisticians and epidemiologists. Active search for novel familial predispositions and patterns of inheritance goes on and these provide challenging findings to molecular characterization by our molecular team and others.