Provided herein are methods for determining the functional status of a cellular pathway in a diseased cell sample obtained from an individual subject. These methods involve contacting a diseased cell sample obtained from the subject with a perturbing agent (e.g., an activating agent) known to perturb a specific cellular pathway when the pathway is functioning normally. A change in one or more physiological response parameters in the presence of the perturbing agent indicates that the cellular pathway targeted by the perturbing agent is functional in the individual subject. Methods of selecting a targeted therapeutic agent for an individual subject are also provided.
