Crowdsourcing Genomics: Finding the Wisdom in a Sea of Information. This playlist is from a lecture I gave on July 25, 2019, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to members of the Gates Center Summer Internship Program (GSIP).The lecture is divided into four parts: 1) History and Uses of Wisdom of Crowds, 2) Using the 'Crowd' to Research a Disease, 3) Using the 'Crowd' to Research a Gene, and 4) Final Thoughts and Questions.
History and Uses of Wisdom of Crowds. In part one, I present on the history behind ‘wisdom of crowds’ and give examples and conditions of its use. I also discuss how using the ‘crowd’ can be beneficial to biological research.
Using the 'Crowd' to Research a Disease. In part two, I use Correlation Engine (Illumina) to gather gene expression meta-data on papillary renal cell carcinoma. I also use Partek Genomics Suite (Partek Inc.) to identify gene clusters associated with the more aggressive form of the disease, and the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) to build a network with these genes.
Using the 'Crowd' to Research a Gene. In part three, I use the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform to compile a list of genes correlated to the MYCN gene in three different neuroblastoma gene expression datasets. I then use Partek Genomics Suite (Partek Inc.) to identify the common correlated genes, and then run these genes through STRING to construct a connection network, and Correlation Engine (Illumina) to pull out over-represented biological groups from this list.
Final Thoughts and Questions.
If you are interested in performing this type of analysis for your own research, please contact me for a free consultation.
-Michael Edwards, Bioinfo Solutions LLC