Biochips data analysis

Biochips produce huge data sets. Data collected from microarray experiments are random snapshots with errors, inherently noisy and incomplete. Extracting meaningful information from thousands of data points by means of bioinformatics and statistical analysis is sophisticated and calls for collaboration among researchers from different disciplines. An increasing number of image and data analysis tools, in part freely accessible ( ) to academic researchers and non-profit institutions, is available in the web. Some examples are found in Tables 3 and 4. 

A typical gene expression profiling experiment takes place in five separate processes. They are (i) microarray fabrication, (ii) purification and labeling of the target material, (iii) hybridization, (iv) detection and (v) data analysis. The characteristics of each step were briefly discussed in the introduction. A closer look at each of these steps is the object of this section. Here we mainly refer to biochips where the probe is constituted by nucleic acids (DNA microarrays). 

The authors gratefully acknowledge the VdJ Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B) and the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology (CIT BIO-99-010)for financial support. We thank Carl Ashby and Wanyan Xu for their assistance in the data analysis and Jolene Windle for assistance in writing this manuscript. 

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