Using computer models to predict more effective therapies
Scientist at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have used a
computer simulation for predicting the effectiveness of various
combination therapies for colon tumors. The study has been
published in the current issue of the professional journal
Molecular Systems Biology.  In most tumors, the communication
between the individual cells is disturbed and the cells
permanently receive growth and survival signals. For this
reason, drugs are increasingly used in modern tumor therapy that
targets those molecules to shut down these faulty signals.
Hitherto, however, it has been difficult to predict the success
of such a therapy, since the signal molecules are integrated
into an extremely complex cellular network, which, moreover,
reacts differently for each patient, depending on the mutations
the tumor bears.  The research group headed by Nils Blüthgen,
Charité Institute of Pathology, has now examined how the
interconnection of such a affects the effectiveness