title: Democratizing systems immunology with modular transcriptional repertoire analyses.
abstract: Individual elements that constitute the immune system have been characterized over the few past decades, mostly through reductionist approaches. The introduction of large-scale profiling platforms has more recently facilitated the assessment of these elements on a global scale. However, the analysis and the interpretation of such large-scale datasets remains a challenge and a barrier for the wider adoption of systems approaches in immunological and clinical studies. In this Innovation article, we describe an analytical strategy that relies on the a priori determination of co-dependent gene sets for a given biological system. Such modular transcriptional repertoires can in turn be used to simplify the analysis and the interpretation of large-scale datasets, and to design targeted immune fingerprinting assays and web applications that will further facilitate the dissemination of systems approaches in immunology.
authors.affiliation: Benaroya Research Institute Systems Immunology Division, 1201 Ninth Street, Seattle, Washington, 98101-2795, USA.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chaussabel
authors.affiliation: Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, Baylor Research Institute, 3434 Live Oak St, Dallas, Texas, 75204, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baldwin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D057225:Data Mining; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018448:Models, Immunological; D049490:Systems Biology