HOMER: a human organ-specific molecular electronic repository

Area of Science:

• Genomics and Bioinformatics
• Molecular Biology
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Organ-specificity describes differential gene expression across human organs.
• Organ-specific genes/proteins are elevated in particular organs and can serve as disease markers.
• Existing resources lack comprehensive organ coverage and integrated disease association data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated repository for human organ-specific genes/proteins and their disease associations.
• To provide a comprehensive resource for identifying organ-specific molecules and their roles in human diseases.
• To facilitate the discovery of novel organ-specific markers implicated in disease.

Main Methods:

• Designed the Human Organ-specific Molecular Electronic Repository (HOMER) database.
• Integrated data from multiple sources (dbEST, TiSGeD, HPA, CTD, Disease Ontology).
• Established criteria including comprehensive organ coverage, gene/protein-disease, disease-organ associations, and quantification of organ-specificity.

Main Results:

• HOMER covers ~22,598 proteins, 52 organs, and 4,290 diseases.
• Features a web interface for searching organ-specific genes/proteins by gene, protein, organ, or disease.
• Validated database quality through comparative analysis and case studies on disease association and gene set enrichment.

Conclusions:

• HOMER is a novel resource for analyzing organ-specific molecules and their disease relevance.
• The developed statistical method for organ-specificity identification is applicable to other organisms.
• HOMER aids researchers in discovering and characterizing disease-relevant organ-specific genes/proteins.