The Role of Genomic Signatures
To use a very simple analogy, genomic signatures can be used to identify cancer cells in the way that a flag can identify a particular country. Although each flag is composed of several distinct colors and shapes, when these items are put together and arranged in a certain way, they form a distinctive pattern—or signature—that helps to distinguish one flag from another.
When studying genetic data, researchers are essentially looking for recognizable patterns like these. However, they are faced with the challenge of trying to extract these “shapes” from huge arrays of genes, proteins, and/or RNA molecules.
What comes out of this analysis is an incredible, almost impossible to imagine amount of data. If it were printed out, these findings would run to thousands of pages. As such, it has become increasingly difficult to identify which genes are relevant and to what degree, especially when working with tens of thousands of data points being generated by hundreds of different patients.
To make matters even more challenging, research groups working in this area typically consist of a collection of highly trained specialists, each of whom has a unique technical skill. As a result, each individual person on the research team—whether a pathologist, molecular biologist, and/or biostatistician—is often so specialized that none of them fully understands exactly what his or her colleagues are doing.