Dr. Naomi Walsh: Using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to tackle  Pancreatic cancer
Channel: nicb.dcu
Date: 07/12/2016

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal diseases. No effective screening test exists for pancreatic cancer; therefore there is a critical need to identify genetic factors that contribute to the development of this disease. 

GWAS (genome-wide association studies) is the rapid scanning of markers across complete genomes (complete set of DNA) of many people to find genetic variations associated with a particular disease. 

The PanScan consortium (https://epi.grants.cancer.gov/PanScan/) has performed three pancreatic cancer GWAS analyses, identifying eight genetic variants associated with its development. Although important, these studies identify only single SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and as cancer usually involves the disruption of multiple genes acting together in a cascade/pathway, testing the association between pancreatic cancer and groups of genes within a defined biological pathway can complement the GWAS-SNP approach to further understand the genetic causes of pancreatic cancer. 

Naomi's research uses pathway analysis of the PanScan GWAS in collaboration with the NCI to identify SNPs/genes within pathways and I am developing unique functional cancer 3D cell and patient models to determine the role and function of the SNP/gene within the pathway of interest to identify the molecular mechanisms and causes of pancreatic cancer. 

This information can be used to develop better strategies to detect, treat and prevent pancreatic cancer.