Statistical Issues in the Design and Analysis of nCounter Projects.

TitleStatistical Issues in the Design and Analysis of nCounter Projects.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsJung, Sin-Ho, and Insuk Sohn
JournalCancer Inform
Volume13
IssueSuppl 7
Pagination35-43
Date Published2014
ISSN1176-9351
Abstract

Numerous statistical methods have been published for designing and analyzing microarray projects. Traditional genome-wide microarray platforms (such as Affymetrix, Illumina, and DASL) measure the expression level of tens of thousands genes. Since the sets of genes included in these array chips are selected by the manufacturers, the number of genes associated with a specific disease outcome is limited and a large portion of the genes are not associated. nCounter is a new technology by NanoString to measure the expression of a selected number (up to 800) of genes. The list of genes for nCounter chips can be selected by customers. Due to the limited number of genes and the price increase in the number of selected genes, the genes for nCounter chips are carefully selected among those discovered from previous studies, usually using traditional high-throughput platforms, and only a small number of definitely unassociated genes, called control genes, are included to standardize the overall expression level across different chips. Furthermore, nCounter chips measure the expression level of each gene using a counting observation while the traditional high-throughput platforms produce continuous observations. Due to these differences, some statistical methods developed for the design and analysis of high-throughput projects may need modification or may be inappropriate for nCounter projects. In this paper, we discuss statistical methods that can be used for designing and analyzing nCounter projects.

DOI10.4137/CIN.S16343
Alternate JournalCancer Inform
Original PublicationStatistical issues in the design and analysis of nCounter projects.
PubMed ID25574131
PubMed Central IDPMC4266201
Grant ListP01 CA142538 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
Project: