New breast cancer genes - Discovery at the intersection of complex data sets

The identification of genes that contribute to the oncogenic process, including those that determine risk of cancer onset, holds the key not only in understanding mechanisms of oncogenesis but also in the identification of new targets for therapeutic development. Traditional methods of genetics and molecular biology have been successful but are slow and laborious. The advent of genome technologies, leading to the generation of large data sets describing various properties of genes and proteins relevant to cancer phenotypes, has afforded a new opportunity for discovery. M. Vidal and colleagues have made use of this data, and in particular the integration of various forms of genome-scale data, to identify new genes involved in breast cancer.