Professor Anastassiou's systems biology lab won all rounds, including the final validation round, of a widely observed “breast cancer prognosis challenge,” for which 354 participants from 35 countries had registered. The goal of the Challenge, organized by Sage Bionetworks and the DREAM project, was to identify the best computational model designed to predict breast cancer survival. The model of the winning team, which also includes his Ph.D. students Wei-Yi Cheng and Tai-Hsien Ou Yang, was based on the novel methodology of “Attractor Metagenes” and proved to be highly prognostic in a totally new validation dataset generated exclusively for that purpose with the help of a donation from the Avon Foundation.
The journal Science Translational Medicine has agreed to publish their winning model in a paper without additional review (accepting the “challenge-assisted peer review”). The Attractor Metagenes represent biomolecular events present in all types, not just breast, cancer. The team hopes that the biological insight obtained by the prognostic model will lead to improved ways of diagnosing and treating the disease.
To read the announcement, click here.
