In an effort to locate a genetic basis for schizophrenia, the National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) in Santa Fe, New MExico established the Schizophrenia Genome Project. Taking genetic data from 14 patients and 6 controls, they found themselves searching for 11,500 candidate genes amongst 16.7 billion bases. How to find them? Statistical analysis and visualization.
NCGR analysts used principal components analysis and hierarchical clustering to assess the data. The variance attributable to disease status was higher for the Illumina digital expression data than from conventional array analysis. “Visualization tools, such as Principal Component Analysis, readily separated the cases and controls, we spotted differences right away,” says Schilkey.
via Bio-IT World.
