[BioC] Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes using Microarray Technology

James W. MacDonald jmacdon at uw.edu
Mon Sep 10 20:46:24 CEST 2012


Hi Eleonora,

On 9/10/2012 2:38 PM, Eleonora Lusito wrote:
> Dear BioC users, I have a question regarding microarray data analysis (Human
> Affymetrix one color). My point is that I have just 1 sample TREATMENT and 1
> sample REFERENCE. Neither technical replicates nor biological replicates are
> available. A statistical test to find differentially expressed genes between
> the two conditions seems to me impossible (even the simple t-test) due to the
> absence of replicates. People who asked me to do the analysis were interested
> only in finding the genes changing between the two conditions. In this
> conditions, in my opinion only the fold change is possible just to give a
> general view of the behavior of the genes. Any other suggestion about this
> issue?

You are correct - all you can do is rank by fold change.

Best,

Jim


>
> Thanks a lot
>
> E.
>

-- 
James W. MacDonald, M.S.
Biostatistician
University of Washington
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
4225 Roosevelt Way NE, # 100
Seattle WA 98105-6099



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