Building a Computer Model of Myeloma

Representatives from The Dana—Farber Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai, and GNS Healthcare recently announced they are teaming up to pool their data and technology assets in order to build a predictive model of multiple myeloma disease progression.

Multiple myeloma, a blood disease affecting 20,000 Americans each year, has been studied extensively by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Despite the fact that the organization has conducted gene profiling, proteomic, and signaling studies in tumor cell samples, there are still some existing questions about the pathophysiology of the condition. Although myeloma is treatable, it is incurable.

“GNS will apply its Big Data analytics platform to create a disease-specific computer model that will yield a powerful new resource to the multiple myeloma research and clinical community—with the ultimate aim of better outcomes for patients,” noted GNS chief executive officer and cofounder Colin Hill, in a press release. “This collaboration with Dana-Farber and Mount Sinai will create models that will help transform the tremendous amount of data coming from new technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, into predictive computer models of disease progression and treatment response for scientists and clinicians.”

The parties involved in the collaboration hope their work will allow them to better visualize the disease and identify novel intervention points in the cell processes. With the results of their predictive model, they hope to develop novel targeted therapies.