Microarray gene expression experiments experimental design

In Sections 2 to 4, we review the technology of synthetic oligonucleotide microarrays and describe some of the popular statistical methods that are used to discover genes with differential expression in simple comparative experiments. A novel Bayesian procedure is introduced in Section 5 to analyze differential expression that addresses some of the limitations of current procedures. We proceed, in Section 6, by discussing the issue of sample size and describe two approaches to sample size determination in screening experiments with microarrays. The first approach is based on the concept of reproducibility, and the second approach uses a Bayesian decision-theoretic criterion to trade off information gain and experimental costs. We conclude, in Section 7, with a discussion of some of the open problems in the design and analysis of microarray experiments that need further research. 

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