Dr Helen Lockstone

Head of Functional Data Analysis

 

I am primarily involved in the analysis and interpretation of microarray data generated within the WTCHG and through other collaborations. This is usually gene expression data obtained for different groups of samples (disease and healthy subjects for example). The rationale behind these studies is that differences in transcript abundance between groups can give insights into the biological mechanisms underlying the disease or condition being studied.

Microarray studies generate a vast amount of data, which can be difficult to interpret even once it has been reduced to a list of differentially expressed genes. Many software tools (often freely available) have been developed to extract useful biological information from microarray data. These tools aim to identify particular groups of genes that are enriched among the genes found differentially expressed. For example, if genes involved in a particular biological process are found to be enriched, that process may be important in the disease.

In addition to gene expression profiling, high-throughput array technology now has a wide variety of other applications, including the investigation of alternative splicing, microRNAs, identification of transcription factor binding sites (ChIP-chip), methylation and DNaseI hypersensitivity sites. These datasets provide information about regulatory features on a genome-wide scale.

Several large-scale studies being conducted in the Centre use one or more of these complementary approaches to identify not only the genes showing altered expression, but to investigate the regulatory mechanisms responsible for the observed differences as well. These studies have great potential to help understand the highly complex system of gene regulation and expression, and the aberrations that occur in disease.

Recently I have become involved in the analysis of High-throughput Sequencing data, e.g. ChiP-Seq and digital transcriptomics.