Genome Explorations searches genetic code for cancer cause

Health & Biotech story for The Memphis Daily News

Nov. 14, 2011

In a nondescript building on Jefferson Avenue, in what looks like an oversized kitchen with multiple refrigerators, Divyen Patel and his staff are searching genetic codes to find the switch that might, one day, turn off cancer.

At Genome Explorations, the business he began in 2001, Patel explains best what the scientists and lab techs do.

“We actually break down genetic disease on a genetic basis, and then try to understand what the causative agents are for any particular disease.”

Patel began work with technology he developed and brought to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, researching childhood cancers before expanding into adult cancers. The technology allows Genome Explorations to run 1.3 million to 3 million different tests on a particular tissue. The results can then be used to compare normal to diseased tissue to figure out just what went wrong genetically for that disease to occur … (read more)