Modelling the Role of Aneuploidy in Tumour Evolution

The role of aneuploidy (the cellular state of having an abnormal number of chromosomes) in cancer is not well understood. A recent theory suggests that aneuploidy may be an initial step towards the generation of variation in cancer. This theory however is very difficult to test in biological experiments. To address this theory and explore the role that aneuploidy has on the development of cancer, a computational model of cancer evolution has been developed. Results show that, depending on the arrangement of tumour suppressors, proto-oncogenes and regulators of chromosome segregation in the genome, aneuploidy induces distinct pathways for the generation of novel genotypes leading to emergent cancer-like behaviour.

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