Using computer models to predict more effective therapies for colon tumors
In most tumors, the communication between the individual cells is disturbed and the cells permanently receive growth and survival signals. For this reason, drugs are increasingly used in modern tumor therapy that targets those molecules to shut down these faulty signals. Hitherto, however, it has been difficult to predict the success of such a therapy, since the signal molecules are integrated into an extremely complex cellular network, which, moreover, reacts differently for each patient, depending on the mutations the tumor bears. The research group headed by Nils Blüthgen, Charité Institute of Pathology, has now examined how the interconnection of such a cellular network affects the effectiveness of a therapy…