IIT Madras researchers develop machine learning tool to detect tumours in brain, spinal cord

Researchers with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have developed a machine learning-based computational tool for better detection of cancer-causing tumours in the brain and spinal cord. The web server known as ‘GBMDriver’ (GlioBlastoma Mutiforme Drivers) is now publicly available online.

The GBMDriver was developed specifically to identify driver mutations and passenger mutations (passenger mutations are neutral mutations) in Glioblastoma. In order to develop this web server, a variety of factors such as amino acid properties, di- and tri-peptide motifs, conservation scores, and Position Specific Scoring Matrices (PSSM) were taken into account.