Context-specific gene regulations in cancer gene expression data

Pac Symp Biocomput. 2009:75-86.

Abstract

Learning or inferring networks of genomic regulation specific to a cellular state, such as a subtype of tumor, can yield insight above and beyond that resulting from network-learning techniques which do not acknowledge the adaptive nature of the cellular system. In this study we show that Cellular Context Mining, which is based on a mathematical model of contextual genomic regulation, produces gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from steady-state expression microarray data which are specific to the varying cellular contexts hidden in the data; we show that these GRNs not only model gene interactions, but that they are also readily annotated with context-specific genomic information. We propose that these context-specific GRNs provide advantages over other techniques, such as clustering and Bayesian networks, when applied to gene expression data of cancer patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Biometry
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Gene Expression Profiling / statistics & numerical data
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Humans
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Multigene Family
  • Neoplasms / classification
  • Neoplasms / genetics*