A Database for Disease

October 16, 2006 | Source: Technology Review

A newly developed genetic “roadmap” promises to streamline the drug discovery process. Called the Connectivity Map, this public database matches drug compounds with diseased cells and the processes occurring within them.

At any point in time, some genes in a cell are expressed, or “on,” while others are not. And a cell’s particular profile of activity is known as its gene-expression signature. When cells are exposed to a drug, that signature changes: some genes that were expressed are turned off and vice-versa. And different drugs leave different signatures. It is these signatures that the researchers used to build the Connectivity Map.