On Wednesday, July 6, researchers of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) said that they have developed a tool that predicts cancer-causing cells in individuals. A press release from the institute stated, "Researchers have developed an Artificial Intelligence-based tool — Pivot — that can predict cancer-causing genes in an individual," as stated in a report by PTI.

Explaining what the tool can do, the institute said that the tool will help in developing personalised strategies or plans to treat cancer. The note read, "The tool would help devise personalised cancer treatment strategies." It is said that the prediction is based on a model that utilises the information on mutation, expression of genes and copy number variation in genes and perturbations in the biological network due to an altered gene expression.

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While chemical engineering professor Raghunathan Rengaswamy led the research, D Karthik Raman, Associate Professor, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences in the institute, and Malavika Sudhakar, research scholar, were on the team, as stated in a report by The Hindu.

The researchers said, "The tool is based on a Machine Learning model that classifies genes as tumour suppressors, neutral or oncogenes. It could predict both the existing oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, besides certain new cancer-related genes."

Further, a report by The Hindu said that the team is working on a list of personalised cancer-causing genes, which help in finding a suitable drug for patients based on their personalised cancer profile. And Frontier in Genetics, a peer-reviewed journal, published the research findings in their journal.