title: Statistical methods for estimating complexity from competition experiments between two populations.
abstract: Often a screening or selection experiment targets a cell or tissue, which presents many possible molecular targets and identifies a correspondingly large number of ligands. We describe a statistical method to extract an estimate of the complexity or richness of the set of molecular targets from competition experiments between distinguishable ligands, including aptamers derived from combinatorial experiments (SELEX or phage display). In simulations, the non-parametric statistic provides a robust estimate of complexity from a 100 x100 matrix of competition experiments, which is clearly feasible in high-throughput format. The statistic and method are potentially applicable to other ligand binding situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, 202 Mathematics Science Building, University of Missouri, Columbia MO 65211, USA. stephen@missouri.edu
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Montgomery-Smith
authors.forename: Francis J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D015233:Models, Statistical; D019151:Peptide Library; D052156:SELEX Aptamer Technique; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D019151:Peptide Library