A new AI tool developed by researchers in the Korbel Group at EMBL Heidelberg now offers a powerful method to gain deep insights into how such chromosomal abnormalities arise in the first place. This knowledge could eventually help scientists understand the origin of cancer.

“Chromosomal abnormalities are a main driver for particularly aggressive cancers, and they’re highly linked to patient death, metastasis, recurrence, chemotherapy resistance, and fast tumor onset,” said Jan Korbel, senior scientist at EMBL and senior author of the new paper, published in the journal Nature.

“We wanted to understand what determines the likelihood that cells undergo such chromosomal alterations, and what’s the rate at which such abnormalities arise when a still normal cell divides.”