OncoCL: A Cancer Cell Ontology

Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor ME

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We will develop an ontology, OncoCL, to describe cancer cells that will provide a framework for consistent annotation of cancer-associated genetic and genomic data. OncoCL will capture the spatiotemporal properties of cancer cell changes and provide a framework for the representation of cancer development and progression. The existing Cell Ontology (CL) is a representation of normal in vivo and in vitro cell types from all f biology and includes cell lineage descriptions. However, the CL was not designed to capture the pathology of cancer cells and the molecular changes involved in tumorigenesis. OncoCL will fill this gap. The conceptual basis of our approach is that cancer cell genotypes derive from the succession of alterations as described by Hanahan and Weinberg: self-sufficiency in growth signals, insensitivity to antigrowth signals, evasion of apoptosis, limitless replicative potential sustained angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasis, as well as reprogramming of energy metabolism, evading immune destruction, genomic instability and mutation, and tumor-promoting inflammation. Project deliverables for the research proposed here include a preliminary OncoCL ontology that will allow the integration and analysis of genome-scale data that depend on cancer cell lineage, the relation to normal cells, and the temporal aspects of development from one cell type to another.