A software pipeline for multiple microarray data analysis

Microarray platforms such as Gene expression, oligonucleotide (GeneChip), and cDNA (complementary DNA) can play a critical role in the understanding of genome sequencing, by providing information for hundreds or thousands genes in a single assay, information not available by using other methodologies of investigation. Microarray experiments aim to survey patterns of gene expression by assaying the expression levels of thousands of genes in parallel in a single assay. Thus, microarray are known as high-throughput technologies, allowing the investigation of genetic variations underlying the inter-individual variability in drug pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, providing a complete understanding of gene function, regulation, and interactions. Thus, to exploit all the power of this massive amount of data in the short possible time (before that data becomes obsolete), the necessity to develop databases and software tools for efficient data collection and analysis arises. The establishing of efficient and scalable software tools avoids that researcher will be overwhelming from this ever-growing flow of data. At this reason, a preliminary design of a platform named microPipe, for the multiple analysis of microarray data sets is proposed. Specifically, the paper outlines the main issues and challenges relative to the design of such a platform.