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MERAV: a tool for comparing gene expression across human tissues and cell types
Yoav D Shaul1, Bingbing Yuan2, Prathapan Thiru2
1Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA yoavsh@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
Nucleic Acids Research
|December 3, 2015
Summary
This study introduces MERAV, a web tool for analyzing gene expression in normal and cancer cells. MERAV aids in understanding metabolic alterations crucial for tumor progression.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Bioinformatics
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Cancer cells undergo significant metabolic reprogramming to support rapid proliferation.
- Understanding these metabolic shifts is crucial for identifying therapeutic targets.
- Gene expression analysis provides insights into cellular physiological changes during oncogenesis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present the Metabolic gEne RApid Visualizer (MERAV), a novel web-based tool.
- To facilitate the analysis of gene expression data for understanding cancer metabolism.
- To provide a resource for researchers studying tumor progression and metabolic alterations.
Main Methods:
- Developed a web-based tool (MERAV) querying a database of approximately 4300 human microarrays.
- Included gene expression data from normal tissues, cancer cell lines, and primary tumors.
- Integrated specific matrices for metabolic genes and links to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways.
Main Results:
- MERAV enables parallel gene searching and comparison of expression across diverse tissues and cell types.
- The tool facilitates the download of raw data and generation of heatmaps for visualization.
- MERAV offers an internal statistical tool for data analysis and includes specialized metabolic gene datasets.
Conclusions:
- MERAV is a powerful, user-friendly tool for whole-genome expression analysis, particularly for metabolic processes in cancer.
- The tool aids in identifying key metabolic genes and pathways involved in tumor progression.
- MERAV enhances the study of cancer cell physiology and provides a valuable resource for oncological research.