Using functional genetics to understand breast cancer biology
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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Utilizing Functional Genomics Screening to Identify Potentially Novel Drug Targets in Cancer Cell Spheroid Cultures
Published on: December 26, 2016
1The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, SW3 6JB, United Kingdom. alan.ashworth@icr.ac.uk
Abstract:
Genetic screens were for long the prerogative of those that studied model organisms. The discovery in 2001 that gene silencing through RNA interference (RNAi) can also be brought about in mammalian cells paved the way for large scale loss-of-function genetic screens in higher organisms. In this article, we describe how functional genetic studies can help us understand the biology of breast cancer, how it can be used to identify novel targets for breast cancer therapy, and how it can help in the identification of those patients that are most likely to respond to a given therapy.
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