One-stop-shop for cancer research

A one-stop-shop cancer drug discovery database has been launched by scientists who hope it will speed up the process of bringing drugs from bench to bedside.

Researchers at Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Therapeutics Unit at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have bought together all the relevant biological, chemical and pharmacological data about important genes and proteins in every type of cancer in one place.

The Cancer Research UK-funded database – named canSAR – will eventually include clinical data, and will allow scientists and clinicians to search through cancer-related data and information across the spectrum of research in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

“With the unprecedented amounts of electronic data being generated by modern molecular research techniques, demand for a resource that brings together all the information and makes it available in a clear and manageable format is greater than ever,” said Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani, research leader, “Previously the information was stored in many different locations and formats, which limited its effective use by researchers.”

canSAR contains information on the entire human proteome – the protein equivalent of the human genome – and information on more than 1,000 cancer cell lines. It includes more than eight million experimental data points and will allow scientists to rapidly identify the biological and structural characteristics of a potential drug target, find the genes and proteins it reacts with, assess its structural drugability and identify any small molecule chemical inhibitors, said Cancer Therapeutics Unit director Professor Paul Workman.

“We have already found canSAR to be fantastically useful in our own cancer drug discovery research,” Workman said, “We are applying it to evaluate large numbers of potential drug targets in a faster and more systematic way than before and to select the best ones to work on. Having road tested it ourselves, I’m really excited about our powerful canSAR tool and I’m delighted to make it available to the cancer research community worldwide.

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer information said: “This new database will provide scientists with easy access to research being carried out by other specialist groups around the world, paving the way for a much more collaborative way of working. Hopefully this will accelerate the pace at which discoveries involving the nuts and bolts of cancer can be translated into effective new drugs in the clinic.”