Multiobjective fuzzy biclustering in microarray data: Method and a new performance measure

Objective of any biclustering algorithm in microarray data is to discover a subset of genes that are expressed similarly in a subset of conditions. The boundaries of biclusters usually overlap as genes and conditions may belong to different biclusters with different membership degrees. Hence the notion of fuzzy sets is useful for discovering such overlapping biclusters. In this article an attempt has been made to develop a multiobjective genetic algorithm based approach for probabilistic fuzzy biclustering that minimizes the residual and maximizes cluster size and expression profile variance. A novel variable string length encoding has been proposed in this regard that encodes multiple biclusters in a single string. Also a new performance measure that reflects how a bicluster is statistically distinguished from the background is proposed. Performance of the proposed algorithm has been compared with some well known biclustering algorithms.