AI Breakthrough from Indian Scientists Could Change How We Understand Cancer Cancer isn’t just about tumour size or spread — it has a hidden “molecular personality” powered by biological programs called the hallmarks of cancer. These hallmarks decide how a tumour grows, evades the immune system, or resists treatment. Traditional staging systems often miss this deeper story. A new study from S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (DST) in collaboration with Ashoka University has changed the game. Our team has developed the world’s first AI framework — OncoMark — that can read the molecular ‘mind’ of cancer. It analyses 3.1 million single cells across 14 cancer types to create synthetic “pseudo-biopsies”, helping us understand how hallmarks like metastasis and immune evasion interact to drive cancer progression. What did we find? OncoMark predicts hallmark activity with over 99% accuracy Works across real-world patient data (20,000 samples from 8 datasets) For the first time, we can visualize how hallmark activity increases with disease stage It can guide doctors toward drugs that target the active hallmarks in each patient It may help catch aggressive cancers early — even when they look harmless using standard staging
- Youtube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKxeyPFrlAk&t=26s
- Workflow : https://oncomark.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- Detailed Publications: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08727-z
