Merging bottom‐up and top‐down approaches to study prostate cancer biology

The sequencing of the human genome has opened new areas of possibility for understanding diseases such as cancers. Sequencing has given us the necessary building blocks for identifying the components of important signaling networks, whereas new tools such as automated gene sequencing, cDNA microassays, and tissue arrays are beginning to produce a torrent of data about these components. As we determine the components of these signaling networks, we can learn how the components are altered by transformations in the cell DNA. However, this torrent of information has also imposed a barrier: It is often unclear how to organize and use the data in ways that tell us more about the signaling networks. As with building blocks in a box, many of the components are still to be assembled into coherent structures.