Bimodal gene expression and biomarker discovery.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It was published in: Cancer Informatics

2010; 9: 11–14.

The published version is available at PMCID: PMC2834379. Copyright © Libertas Academica

Abstract

With insights gained through molecular profiling, cancer is recognized as a heterogeneous disease with distinct subtypes and outcomes that can be predicted by a limited number of biomarkers. Statistical methods such as supervised classification and machine learning identify distinguishing features associated with disease subtype but are not necessarily clear or interpretable on a biological level. Genes with bimodal transcript expression, however, may serve as excellent candidates for disease biomarkers with each mode of expression readily interpretable as a biological state. The recent article by Wang et al, entitled "The Bimodality Index: A Criterion for Discovering and Ranking Bimodal Signatures from Cancer Gene Expression Profiling Data," provides a bimodality index for identifying and scoring transcript expression profiles as biomarker candidates with the benefit of having a direct relation to power and sample size. This represents an important step in candidate biomarker discovery that may help streamline the pipeline through validation and clinical application.

PubMed ID

20234772

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