WholePathwayScope: a comprehensive pathway-based analysis tool for high-throughput data.
BACKGROUND
Analysis of High Throughput (HTP) Data such as microarray and proteomics data has provided a powerful methodology to study patterns of gene regulation at genome scale. A major unresolved problem in the post-genomic era is to assemble the large amounts of data generated into a meaningful biological context. We have developed a comprehensive software tool, WholePathwayScope (WPS), for deriving biological insights from analysis of HTP data.


RESULTS
WPS extracts gene lists with shared biological themes through color cue templates. WPS statistically evaluates global functional category enrichment of gene lists and pathway-level pattern enrichment of data. WPS incorporates well-known biological pathways from KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) and Biocarta, GO (Gene Ontology) terms as well as user-defined pathways or relevant gene clusters or groups, and explores gene-term relationships within the derived gene-term association networks (GTANs). WPS simultaneously compares multiple datasets within biological contexts either as pathways or as association networks. WPS also integrates Genetic Association Database and Partial MedGene Database for disease-association information. We have used this program to analyze and compare microarray and proteomics datasets derived from a variety of biological systems. Application examples demonstrated the capacity of WPS to significantly facilitate the analysis of HTP data for integrative discovery.


CONCLUSIONS
This tool represents a pathway-based platform for discovery integration to maximize analysis power. The tool is freely available at http://www.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/wps/wps_index.php.
Yi
Ming
M
Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, National Cancer Institute-Frederick/SAIC-Frederick Inc., Frederick, MD 21702, USA. myi@ncifcrf.gov
Horton
Jay D
JD
Cohen
Jonathan C
JC
Hobbs
Helen H
HH
Stephens
Robert M
RM
D003196:Computer Graphics; D003628:Database Management Systems; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface