Variance of gene expression identifies altered network constraints in neurological disease

Jessica Mar (Harvard University)

CSIRO ICT

DATE: 2010-09-06
TIME: 14:00:00 - 15:00:00
LOCATION: Seminar Room S206, CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, Building 108, ANU
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ABSTRACT:
In studying biological systems, we tend to think of groups as being defined by specific, measurable parameters, and of the important differences between those groups as being defined by a significant average difference in those parameters. Rarely has the variability across a population been considered in the analysis of transcriptional differences between populations. But increasingly there is evidence that variation may play an equally important role in determining cellular and organismal phenotypes, as well as in helping to explain a wide range of biological phenomena ranging from reduced penetrance to evolutionary fitness.

Here we identify differences in expression variance between groups as an informative metric of the group phenotype, i.e. neurological disease. Using neural stem cells derived from patients suffering from Schizophrenia (SZ), Parkinsonas disease (PD), and a healthy control group we find marked differences in expression variance in cell signaling pathways that shed new light on potential mechanisms associated with these diverse neurological disorders. These results underscore the role that variation plays in biological systems and suggests that analysis of expression variance is far more important in disease than previously recognized. This is collaborative work with Associate Prof Christine Wells & Prof John Quackenbush.
BIO:
Jessica Mar is a graduate student at the Biostatistics Department at Harvard University's School of Public Health.