Scientists have come up with a smartphone game that could help unlock genetic clues about what causes breast cancer.

Scientists at Cancer Research UK have developed an intergalactic smartphone game to help them analyse the overwhelming reams of genetic data generated in recent studies.

They hope thousands of people will play the game, simultaneously trawling through genetic material to pinpoint more precisely which genes cause the disease.

Game developers at the company Guerilla Tea worked with scientists to translate anonymous genetic data gathered from thousands of breast tumours into an adventure in space.

To trawl through this data alone would take scientists many years.

But buried in the colossal dataset there could be key genetic flaws responsible for the development of cancer.

Using current DNA analysis techniques, scientists get readouts from tumour samples containing lots of peaks and troughs. And it’s these highs and lows that are likely to harbour the genetic abnormalities they are looking for.

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