Informatics and multivariate analysis of toxicogenomics data

The application of genomics methods to toxicology holds great promise. Toxicogenomics data mapping gene expression to predict toxicity and understand mechanisms are emerging, with data suggesting the possibility to classify, and eventually predict, toxic responses. The overall process of informatics analysis of microarray data is summarized. The relationship between the bioinformatics of gene expression and toxicogenomics is discussed, with reference to emerging themes that may be important as the field of toxicogenomics evolves. Emerging themes include the choice and validation of statistical methods, the use of gene annotation and the impact of genome sequence projects.