Summary
Objectives:
With the collection of articles presented in this special issue, we aim at educating
interested statisticians and biometricians on the one hand as well as biologists and
medical researchers on the other with respect to basic necessities in planning, conducting
and analyzing microarray gene expression experiments. The reader should get comprehensive
directions to understand both the overall structure of this approach as well as the
decisive details, which enable – or thwart – a meaningful data analysis.
Methods:
For a one-day workshop with tutorial character we brought together experts in design,
conduct and analysis of microarray gene expression experiments who prepared a series
of comprehensive lessons. These contributions were then reworked into a series of
introductory articles and bundled in form and content as a Special Topic.
Results:
It was possible to present a tutorial overview of the field. The interested reader
was able to learn the basic necessities and was referred to further references for
details on the possible alternatives. A recipe style all-embracing plan, covering
all eventualities and possibilities was not only beyond the scope of an introductory
tutorial-like presentation, but was also not yet agreed upon by the scientific society.
Conclusions:
It proved feasible to find a framework for integrating the interdisciplinary approaches
to the challenging field of gene expression analysis with microarrays, hopefully contributing
to a rapid and comprehensive introduction for novices.
