中国生物工程杂志

Data mining of gene expressions using high-throughput methodologies has become very popular in recent years．Data generated through techniques such as microarray hybridization allows the simultaneous quantification of tens of thousands of gene transcripts．The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is the largest fully public repository for high-throughput molecular abundance data．The database has a flexible and open framework that allows the submission，storage and retrieval of many data types．These data include microarray-based experiments measuring the abundance of mRNA，genomic DNA and protein molecules，as well as non-array-based technologies such as serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and mass spectrometry proteomic technology． GEO currently stores approximately a billion individual gene expression measurements，derived from over 100 organisms，addressing a wide range of biological issues． Features are provided to examine data from both experiment and gene-centric perspectives using user-friendly Web-based interfaces which are accessible to those without computational or microarray-related analytical expertise．Here，we review the recent database developments and its future directions，while introduce some tools that allow effective exploration，query and visualization of millions of gene expression profiles through GEO enabled data-mining procedures．The GEO database is publicly accessible through the World Wide Web at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo．