Novel method estimating absolute number of transcripts published in "Nucleic Acids Reseach"
Microarray studies of gene expression are often performed such that only relative expression levels are obtained. Heidi Lyng (senior author), Debbie Hege Svendsrud and coworkers at the University in Oslo and the Norwegian Computing Center (NR) have recently published an article in the top-ranked jounal Nucleic Acids Research (impact factor 7,26).
Here the authors demonstrate that the absolute number of transcripts can be estimated. The novel methods presented in this publication - entitled "Genome-wide estimation of transcript concentrations from spotted cDNA microarray data" - will enable scientists to compare expression in different studies, between and within tissues.
Heidi Lyng and Debbie Hege Svendsrud are members of Group for Molecular Radiation Biology , which is led by Trond Stokke, at the Institute for Cancer Research.
The method has also in a recent BMC Genomics paper - entitled Limitations of mRNA amplification from small-size cell samples, from Eivind Hovig's group at the Norwegian Radium Hospital - been applied to demonstrate the importance of the quantitative aspect when analyzing small cell numbers.
Links:
Genome-wide estimation of transcript concentrations from spotted cDNA microarray data (Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Oct 4;33(17):e143.)
Group for Molecular Radiation Biology (radium.no/stokke)
Heidi Lyng
Debbie Svendsrud
Norwegian Computing Center - information about Transcount
Eivind Hovig's group at the Norwegian Radium Hospital
News article from Hovig's web page: Enzymatic amplification is not the solution to profiling of very small cell samples