Solid State and Optics Seminar

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

1:00 p.m.

107 Mason Lab

"Genechips: A quest for meaningful, quantitative data"

Dr. Glenn Held
IBM Watson Research Center

Abstract

DNA microarrays provide a means of monitoring the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously. For this reason, their use in biological research has become widespread. Accurate interpretation of microarray data remains a significant challenge, however. The raw data from these assays often exhibit large, unexplained fluctuations, and most algorithms for extracting quantitative expression levels from the data are either empirical or statistical in nature. Following an overview of DNA microarrays (genechips), I will present a model which uses the physical properties of hybridization to correlate observed microarray intensities with gene expression. By constructing an entirely physical model, it becomes possible to identify those aspects of microarray processing which most directly impact sensitivity. In addition, it is found that physical models compare favorably with existing statistical software in determining gene expression levels. Finally, I will discuss the use of replicate measurements to quantify the noise inherent in a given microarray technology, as well as to compare data taken using different microarray platforms.

Host: Simon Mochrie