Using a calibration experiment to assess gene-specific information: Full Bayesian and empirical Bayesian models for two-channel microarray data

Abstract

Motivation: Microarray studies permit to quantify expression levels on a global scale by measuring transcript abundance of thousands of genes simultaneously. A difficulty when analysing expression measures is how to model variability for the whole set of genes. It is usually unrealistic to assume a common variance for each gene. Several approaches to model gene-specific variances are proposed. We take advantage of calibration experiments, in which the probes hybridized on the two channels come from the same population (self - self experiment). In this case it is possible to estimate the gene-specific variance, to be incorporated in comparative experiments on the same tissue, cellular line or species. Results: We present two approaches to introduce prior information on gene-specific variability from a calibration experiment: an empirical Bayes model and a full Bayesian hierarchical model. We apply the methods in the analysis of human lipopolysaccharide-stimulated leukocyte experiments. © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.