Microarray Analysis

During the last ten years microarrays became a very popular method in medicine and molecular biology. The possibility to extract thousands of data from a single experiment and the large number of application areas accounted for the high diffusion. With the huge number of data the need for efficient analysis increases.

The interaction of thousands of genes are responsible for the development of a single cell. To comprehend the complex procedures we have to look at all gene expression products at the same time. Using microarrays, it is possible to evaluate the gene expression of every gene simultaniously. It is also possible to compare the gene expression profile of a cell in different states of its development.

The development of embryonal stemcells (ESC) is an important theme in medicine and molecular biology. The extraordinary ability of ESC consists in the potential to grow into any celltype. This attribute is called pluripotency. Understanding the mechanism of pluripotent cells it will be possible to develop new approaches for therapies of many diseases.
Our ambition is to use methods established in computer science since many years to gain new findings of the development of embryonal stemcells.

During their development embryonal stemcells lose their pluripotency. This change is caused by a modified gene expression in the cell. Using microarray data these changes can be shown by comparing the expression profiles of a cell in different states of development. Our intention is to predict whether a cell is pluripotent or not based on its current gene expression profile.

On the one hand looking at the expression level of a gene during development we often find patterns that give information about the function of the gene. On the other hand there are also similarities between different genes at the same time of development which shows the interactions between the single genes. To find and interpret such patterns it is very important to understand the coherences of gene expression and cell development.