Princeton University scientists have produced a systematic listing of the ways a particular cancerous cell has “gone wrong,” pinpointing the alterations in cancer pathways to reveal the underlying regulatory code in DNA.

The findings give researchers a powerful tool that eventually could make possible new, more targeted therapies for patients.

Employing modern methods of systems biology, a computer program sorts through the behavior of each of 20,000 genes operating in a tumor cell, noting which genes are expressed* by scanning the DNA sequence (genome) of a given cell and deciphering which sequences are controlling what pathways and whether any are acting differently from the norm.

*When genes are turned “on,” they express (activate) proteins that serve as signals, creating different pathways of action. Cancer cells often act in aberrant ways, and tracking subtle changes can help determine the genetic regulatory code that is underlying a particular cancer.