Candidate Cancer Gene Database
DNA transposons, especially the Sleeping Beauty and PiggyBac transposons have been used by many labs throughout the world to identify cancer driver genes. The DNA transposons are activated in mice in a specific tissue, causing random mutations that lead to cancer. The tumors are then analyzed using molecular techniques to identify genes that have been mutated by the transposon, implicating these genes as drivers of carcinogenesis. Several reviews have been written describing this type of research. (See Copeland, et al., or Starr, et al.)
To help cancer research scientists explore the lists of cancer drivers identified by these studies we have created an annotated database of all the candidate cancer driver genes that have been discovered using DNA transposons. Researchers can query the database by cancer type, gene, or specific study. An in-depth description of this database was published in Abbott, et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2015.
