ENDEAVOUR: Software Program for Finding Disease Genes

Every day, reams of genomic information is created. Some of it probably disappears almost as quickly as it’s produced because of poor organization and sheer volume. (I know this firsthand because I’ve misplaced data before only hoping that someone else has a duplicate.)

To make sense of the mountain of information, scientists have developed a freeware program called ENDEAVOUR. It’s able to sort through information from a number of different databases (currently 10) in order to identify a candidate gene or genes for a specific disease.

ENDEAVOUR has already successfully reconfirmed previously discovered genes for Alzheimer’s disease, leukemia, colon cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. And, it was able to narrow down the search for a gene underlying DiGeorge syndrome – YPEL1. Zebra fish that carried the mutant YPEL1 gene also showed symptoms similar to DiGeorge syndrome thus proving that the gene most likely plays a role in the etiology of the disease.

As I’ve mentioned before, bioinformatics is at the heart of the genome revolution. Software programs like ENDEAVOUR are critical for making sense of data – organizing raw information, seeing connections, and making comparisons. There’s so much genetics to understand and somewhere buried in all those databases are answers waiting to be discovered using a sophisticated computer algorithm.

Medical News Today, May 10, 2006

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