Mass spectrometric (MS)-based metabolic profiling of blood sera from cancer and control patients is used to establish diagnostic models of the disease. DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time) MS technology is combined with novel pattern recognition algorithms to generate profiles diagnostic of different types of cancer. Initial efforts to establish a diagnostic for ovarian cancer were extremely promising (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20699376). Efforts are currently underway to extend the methodology for the early diagnosis of prostate and pancreatic cancer. The project is a collaboration between the laboratories of ICRC faculty members Facundo Fernandez (Biochemistry), John McDonald (Biology) and Alex Gray (Computer Science).
