A new computer tool able to produce 3D images of genes, proteins and metabolites may help scientists better understand cell mutations that cause disease which can ultimately influence drug development theories to treat cancer and other diseases.

According to an article published Feb. 28 by Clinical Innovation and Technology, the Recon3D works with the elaborate structure of DNA's coils, twists and folds in a linear fashion to integrate 3,288 open reading frames (stretches of DNA and RNA that contain protein-producing genes), 13,542 metabolic reaction and 3D structures of 4,140 metabolites and 12,890 proteins

With the Recon3D, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) were able to pinpoint harmful and potentially cancerous genetic mutations, many of which located adjacent to one another. 

"This is the first resource to link all these different data types together in one place and has shown to be a very valuable tool for analyzing sequencing data," said lead author Elizabeth Brunk, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSD.

The study, published online last week in Nature Biotechnology, was led by Bernhard Palsson, PhD, a professor of bioengineering at UCSD.