Researchers discover genes involved in colorectal cancer

This study published today in Nature Genetics details the investigation of multiple networks of genes involved in driving colorectal cancer. Researchers profiled a vast number of genes related to the disease using the "Sleeping Beauty transposon system." Since APC mutations are widely believed to play a role in initiating colorectal cancer in humans, Sleeping Beauty was used to perform insertional mutagenesis in mice with Apc mutations. By identifying common insertion sites of Sleeping Beauty from a total of 446 excised tumors, hundreds of genes and 38 genetic networks were implicated as candidates for driving tumorigenesis.