Mar 24, 2020

Engineers model mutations causing drug resistance

Whether it is a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, or cancer cells that no longer react to the drugs intended to kill them, diverse mutations make cells resistant to chemicals, and "second generation" approaches are needed. Now, a team of Penn State engineers may have a way to predict which mutations will occur in people, creating an easier path to create effective pharmaceuticals.

(Left) A schematic of drug resistance across a population of patients. Patients with initially sensitive disease (blue) are treated with a drug. Different genetic mutations cause different resistance mutations (red, yellow, and green). (Right) Tallying up the number of patients associated with each resistance allele, some alleles are more common in the clinical population than others. IMAGE: SCOTT LEIGHOW, PENN STATE