Scientists have learned a bit more about diseases that can disrupt genes thanks to some new "maps." A team of researchers from Switzerland and the U.S. have used new software tools to construct "maps" of gene networks for about 400 different human cell and tissue types.

Genome-sequencing has allowed researchers to compare genetic variants between healthy people and those with specific diseases. In other words, researchers are able to pinpoint genetic variants that are linked to different diseases. However, very little is known how these genetic variants influence disease processes and progression, which is why researchers from the Department of Computational Biology at the University of Lausanne and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, in collaboration with the University Hospital of Lausanne and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have conducted a new study to map networks of interacting genes that are influenced by genetic variants linked to diseases.

"The challenge is that over 90 percent of disease variants lie outside of genes, in regions of the genome that are still poorly understood," Daniel Marbach, one of the researchers, said in a press release. "These regions can have regulatory functions, which are sometimes disrupted by genetic variants. Things get even more complicated as the regulatory relationships may vary between different tissue types. For example, a certain gene may activate another one in the liver, but not in the heart."

The research team theorized that genetic variants may impact genes that are connected within networks of tissues that are linked to certain diseases, which is why it used methods that were similar to those applied to social networks. This allowed the scientists to specifically examine the basis of the connections within these networks.

In the end, the researchers managed to create "maps" of the networks. In fact, they created the largest collection of these networks to date. In all, they described the regulatory interactions among 19,000 genes in about 400 human cell types and tissues.

"Our work shows that accurate maps of gene networks for different tissues will be of tremendous value to advance our understanding of how diseases start and progress, which is essential to design targeted treatments and to identify patient groups that respond to these treatments in a personalized medicine setting," said Sven Bergmann, one of the researchers.

The findings could be huge when it comes to better understanding diseases and the networks of tissues involved. These "maps" could be essential to help with further treatments to combat various diseases. 

The study was published in the March 7 issue of the journal Nature Methods.