MSI PIs Chad Myers, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Carol Lange, a professor at the Masonic Cancer Center, are on the interdisciplinary team that has won one of the two Grand Prizes in the National Cancer Institute’s Up for a Challenge (U4C) Breast Cancer Challenge Award. This award includes a cash prize and the opportunity to publish their work in an upcoming special issue of the journal PLoS Genetics. An article about the award appears on the College of Science and Engineering website: University of Minnesota researchers win Breast Cancer Challenge Award.
The team’s work uses computational methods to examine how interactions between genes can influence whether a person gets breast cancer. This works builds on Professor Myer’s previous work about genetic interactions, some of which has been developed in collaboration with another MSI PI, Professor Vipin Kumar (Computer Science and Engineering).
Professor Myers uses MSI’s high-performance computing and data-storage capabilities for his work on genetic interactions. Professor Lange uses MSI resources for studies of progesterone receptors, which are emerging as important drivers of breast cancer progression. Professor Kumar users MSI’s supercomputers for data-mining research in climate science, earth science, and bioinformatics.