Pre-Symposium Microarray Tutorial
19 June 2003
8 a.m. - Noon
The desire to view the simultaneous behavior of genes affected by a stimulus at the total genome level has brought the scientific world to a new place in history. It is now commonplace to have an experiment that investigates the expression of thousands of genes across several treatments and/or time points. The resulting data are vast in magnitude, high in dimension, and inherently variable in nature. As such the necessity for proper statistical design and analysis is essential.
The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce the main concepts surrounding the two most common microarray technologies, the cDNA spotted microarray and the oligonucleotide array, and the data that are produced. Specifically, we will introduce the vocabulary and technology of microarrays; the manner in which data are obtained including image analysis and normalization; the useful principles of experimental design and replication; as well as the statistical analyses employed for addressing biologically important questions (i.e., identification of differentially expressed genes and pattern recognition/gene clustering). Both simulated and real data from both technologies will be used to demonstrate each of the previously mentioned issues. This introductory tutorial is directed towards both biologists and statisticians wanting to become more involved in this exciting field.
Note: This is a separate pre-symposium microarray tutorial with limited space and a separate fee.