Academia Sinica develops oncogenomic database on liver cancer

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on January 18, 2007. It reports that the world's first oncogenomic database specifically designed for hepatocellular carcinoma has been completed by research fellows at the Academia Sinica. The database -- OncoDB.HCC -- can be accessed via the Internet at the following web address:

www.oncodb.hcc.ibms.sinica.edu.tw

According to the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Academic Sinica, the database is the first in the world dedicated to a single cancer. The accuracy, when being applied to clinical cases, is as high as 96 percent.

Specifically, the database can be very helpful in understanding gene expressions and genetic mutations related to liver cancer, as well as in terms of the research and development of biochips for hepatocellular carcinoma.

In previous studies, the institute's researchers have targeted 614 oncogenes to liver cancer. Their research results have already been put online as part of the database.

Currently, the database has integrated three different datasets -- chromosome aberration studies, gene expression studies, and hepatocellular carcinoma model organisms. The database can now be accessed by three different search methods -- "chromosome region", "region around gene", and "rodent data".