BACKGROUND: One of the significant obstacles in the development of clinically relevant microarray-derived biomarkers and classifiers is tissue heterogeneity. Physical cell separation techniques, such as cell sorting and laser-capture microdissection, can enrich samples for cell types of interest, but are costly, labor intensive and can limit investigation of important interactions between different cell types. RESULTS: We developed a new computational approach, called microarray microdissection with analysis of differences (MMAD), which performs microdissection in silico. Notably, MMAD (i) allows for simultaneous estimation of cell fractions and gene expression profiles of contributing cell types, (ii) adjusts for microarray normalization bias, (iii) uses the corrected Akaike information criterion during model optimization to minimize overfitting and (iv) provides mechanisms for comparing gene expression and cell fractions between samples in different classes. Computational microdissection of simulated and experimental tissue mixture datasets showed tight correlations between predicted and measured gene expression of pure tissues as well as tight correlations between reported and estimated cell fraction for each of the individual cell types. In simulation studies, MMAD showed superior ability to detect differentially expressed genes in mixed tissue samples when compared with standard metrics, including both significance analysis of microarrays and cell type-specific significance analysis of microarrays. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a new computational tool called MMAD, which is capable of performing robust tissue microdissection in silico, and which can improve the detection of differentially expressed genes. MMAD software as implemented in MATLAB is publically available for download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mmad/.

Gene co-expression network analysis is an effective method for predicting gene functions and disease biomarkers. However, few studies have systematically identified co-expressed genes involved in the molecular origin and development of various types of tumors. In this study, we used a network mining algorithm to identify tightly connected gene co-expression networks that are frequently present in microarray datasets from 33 types of cancer which were derived from 16 organs/tissues. We compared the results with networks found in multiple normal tissue types and discovered 18 tightly connected frequent networks in cancers, with highly enriched functions on cancer-related activities. Most networks identified also formed physically interacting networks. In contrast, only 6 networks were found in normal tissues, which were highly enriched for housekeeping functions. The largest cancer network contained many genes with genome stability maintenance functions. We tested 13 selected genes from this network for their involvement in genome maintenance using two cell-based assays. Among them, 10 were shown to be involved in either homology-directed DNA repair or centrosome duplication control including the well-known cancer marker MKI67. Our results suggest that the commonly recognized characteristics of cancers are supported by highly coordinated transcriptomic activities. This study also demonstrated that the co-expression network directed approach provides a powerful tool for understanding cancer physiology, predicting new gene functions, as well as providing new target candidates for cancer therapeutics.

Enabling data analysis in large data depositories for high throughput experimental data such as gene microarrays and ChIP-seq is challenging. In this paper, we discuss three methods for integrating QUEST, a data depository for epigenetic experiments, with a web-based data analysis platform GenePattern. These methods are universal and can serve as an exemplary implementation resolving the dilemma facing many similar database systems in integrating data analysis tools.

MOTIVATION: Antibody-based Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assay followed by high-throughput sequencing technology (ChIP-seq) is a relatively new method to study the binding patterns of specific protein molecules over the entire genome. ChIP-seq technology allows scientist to get more comprehensive results in shorter time. Here, we present a non-linear normalization algorithm and a mixture modeling method for comparing ChIP-seq data from multiple samples and characterizing genes based on their RNA polymerase II (Pol II) binding patterns. RESULTS: We apply a two-step non-linear normalization method based on locally weighted regression (LOESS) approach to compare ChIP-seq data across multiple samples and model the difference using an Exponential-Normal(K) mixture model. Fitted model is used to identify genes associated with differential binding sites based on local false discovery rate (fdr). These genes are then standardized and hierarchically clustered to characterize their Pol II binding patterns. As a case study, we apply the analysis procedure comparing normal breast cancer (MCF7) to tamoxifen-resistant (OHT) cell line. We find enriched regions that are associated with cancer (P < 0.0001). Our findings also imply that there may be a dysregulation of cell cycle and gene expression control pathways in the tamoxifen-resistant cells. These results show that the non-linear normalization method can be used to analyze ChIP-seq data across multiple samples. AVAILABILITY: Data are available at http://www.bmi.osu.edu/~khuang/Data/ChIP/RNAPII/.