Going Beyond Four Genes (Part 1)

The picture emerging from our analysis is not a simple one, such as “Gene A is active in the tumor.” The true power of microarray technology is the possibility of assaying thousands of genes and hundreds of samples in the same experiment.

Let’s consider a slightly more complicated example. This experiment has 13 genes with 12 samples. They are ready to be sorted by hierarchical cluster.

By visual inspection, can you detect any patterns in the data set?

What do you think the hierarchical cluster will show? (The answer is on the next slide.)

A 12 by 13 grid of squares randomly colored in shades of red, green, or black. The horizontal side is labeled Sample and the squares are numbered from 1 through 12. The vertical side is labeled Gene and the squares are labeled A through M.