ABSTRACT
The web application D-Maps provides a user-friendly interface to researchers performing studies based on microarrays. The program was developed to manage and process one- or two-color microarray data obtained from several platforms (currently, GeneTAC, ScanArray, CodeLink, NimbleGen and Affymetrix). Despite the availability of many algorithms and many software programs designed to perform microarray analysis on the internet, these usually require sophisticated knowledge of mathematics, statistics and computation. D-maps was developed to overcome the requirement of high performance computers or programming experience. D-Maps performs raw data processing, normalization and statistical analysis, allowing access to the analyzed data in text or graphical format. An original feature presented by D-Maps is GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) submission format service. The D-MaPs application was already used for analysis of oligonucleotide microarrays and PCR-spotted arrays (one- and two-color, laser and light scanner). In conclusion, D-Maps is a valuable tool for microarray research community, especially in the case of groups without a bioinformatic core.
Subject(s)
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis , Software , Computational Biology , Polymerase Chain ReactionABSTRACT
Genome projects, both genomic DNA and ESTs (cDNA), generate a large amount of information, demanding time and a well-structured bioinformatics laboratory to manage these data. These genome projects use information available in heterogeneous formats from different sources. The amount and heterogeneity of this information, as well as the absence of a world consensus pattern, make the integration of these data a difficult task. At the same time, sub-tasks, such as microarray analyses of these projects, are very complex. This creates a demand for the development of creative solutions for ongoing annotation, thematic projects, microarray experiments, etc. This paper presents Gene Projects, a system developed to integrate all kinds of solutions.