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Publications
Chiu, SK, Orive, SL, Moon, MJ, Saw, J, Ellis, S, Kile, BT, Huang, Y, Chacon, D, Pimanda, JE, Beck, D, Hamilton, JR, Tremblay, CS & Curtis, DJ 2019, 'Shared roles for Scl and Lyl1 in murine platelet production and function', Blood, vol. 134, no. 10, pp. 826-835.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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© 2019 by The American Society of Hematology. The stem cell leukemia (Scl or Tal1) protein forms part of a multimeric transcription factor complex required for normal megakaryopoiesis. However, unlike other members of this complex such as Gata1, Fli1, and Runx1, mutations of Scl have not been observed as a cause of inherited thrombocytopenia. We postulated that functional redundancy with its closely related family member, lymphoblastic leukemia 1 (Lyl1) might explain this observation. To determine whether Lyl1 can substitute for Scl in megakaryopoiesis, we examined the platelet phenotype of mice lacking 1 or both factors in megakaryocytes. Conditional Scl knockout (KO) mice crossed with transgenic mice expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the mouse platelet factor 4 (Pf4) promoter generated megakaryocytes with markedly reduced but not absent Scl. These Pf4Sclc-KO mice had mild thrombocytopenia and subtle defects in platelet aggregation. However, Pf4Sclc-KO mice generated on an Lyl1-null background (double knockout [DKO] mice) had severe macrothrombocytopenia, abnormal megakaryocyte morphology, defective pro-platelet formation, and markedly impaired platelet aggregation. DKO megakaryocytes, but not single-knockout megakaryocytes, had reduced expression of Gata1, Fli1, Nfe2, and many other genes that cause inherited thrombocytopenia. These gene expression changes were significantly associated with shared Scl and Lyl1 E-box binding sites that were also enriched for Gata1, Ets, and Runx1 motifs. Thus, Scl and Lyl1 share functional roles in platelet production by regulating expression of partner proteins including Gata1. We propose that this functional redundancy provides one explanation for the absence of Scl and Lyl1 mutations in inherited thrombocytopenia.
Guo, D, Lui, GYL, Lai, SL, Wilmott, JS, Tikoo, S, Jackett, LA, Quek, C, Brown, DL, Sharp, DM, Kwan, RYQ, Chacon, D, Wong, JH, Beck, D, van Geldermalsen, M, Holst, J, Thompson, JF, Mann, GJ, Scolyer, RA, Stow, JL, Weninger, W, Haass, NK & Beaumont, KA 2019, 'RAB27A promotes melanoma cell invasion and metastasis via regulation of pro-invasive exosomes.', International journal of cancer.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Despite recent advances in targeted and immune-based therapies, advanced stage melanoma remains a clinical challenge with a poor prognosis. Understanding the genes and cellular processes that drive progression and metastasis is critical for identifying new therapeutic strategies. Here, we found that the GTPase RAB27A was overexpressed in a subset of melanomas, which correlated with poor patient survival. Loss of RAB27A expression in melanoma cell lines inhibited 3D spheroid invasion and cell motility in vitro, and spontaneous metastasis in vivo. The reduced invasion phenotype was rescued by RAB27A-replete exosomes, but not RAB27A-knockdown exosomes, indicating that RAB27A is responsible for the generation of pro-invasive exosomes. Furthermore, while RAB27A loss did not alter the number of exosomes secreted, it did change exosome size and altered the composition and abundance of exosomal proteins, some of which are known to regulate cancer cell movement. Our data suggest that RAB27A promotes the biogenesis of a distinct pro-invasive exosome population. These findings support RAB27A as a key cancer regulator, as well as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target in melanoma.
Jung, JY, Kang, P-W, Kim, E, Chacon, D, Beck, D & McNevin, D 2019, 'Ancestry informative markers (AIMs) for Korean and other East Asian and South East Asian populations', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEGAL MEDICINE, vol. 133, no. 6, pp. 1711-1719.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Kumar, P, Beck, D, Galeev, R, Thoms, JAI, Talkhoncheh, MS, de Jong, I, Unnikrishnan, A, Baudet, A, Subramaniam, A, Pimanda, JE & Larsson, J 2019, 'HMGA2 promotes long-term engraftment and myeloerythroid differentiation of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells', Blood Advances, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 681-691.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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© 2019 by The American Society of Hematology. Identification of determinants of fate choices in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is essential to improve the clinical use of HSCs and to enhance our understanding of the biology of normal and malignant hematopoiesis. Here, we show that high-mobility group AT hook 2 (HMGA2), a nonhistone chromosomal-binding protein, is highly and preferentially expressed in HSCs and in the most immature progenitor cell subset of fetal, neonatal, and adult human hematopoiesis. Knockdown of HMGA2 by short hairpin RNA impaired the long-term hematopoietic reconstitution of cord blood (CB)–derived CB CD341 cells. Conversely, overexpression of HMGA2 in CB CD341 cells led to overall enhanced reconstitution in serial transplantation assays accompanied by a skewing toward the myeloerythroid lineages. RNA-sequencing analysis showed that enforced HMGA2 expression in CD341 cells induced gene-expression signatures associated with differentiation toward megakaryocyte-erythroid and myeloid lineages, as well as signatures associated with growth and survival, which at the protein level were coupled with strong activation of AKT. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a key role of HMGA2 in regulation of both proliferation and differentiation of human HSPCs.
Thoms, JAI, Beck, D & Pimanda, JE 2019, 'Transcriptional networks in acute myeloid leukemia', GENES CHROMOSOMES & CANCER, vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 859-874.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Palu, C, Herold, T, Shah, A, Olivier, J, Boelen, L, Huang, Y, Chacon, D, Brown, A, Babic, M, Hahn, C, Perugini, M, Zhou, X, Huntly, BJ, Schwarzer, A, Klusmann, J-H, Berdel, WE, Wörmann, B, Büchner, T, Hiddemann, W, Bohlander, SK, To, LB, Scott, HS, Lewis, ID, D'Andrea, RJ, Wong, JWH & Pimanda, JE 2018, 'A four-gene LincRNA expression signature predicts risk in multiple cohorts of acute myeloid leukemia patients.', Leukemia, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 263-272.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Prognostic gene expression signatures have been proposed as clinical tools to clarify therapeutic options in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, these signatures rely on measuring large numbers of genes and often perform poorly when applied to independent cohorts or those with older patients. Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are emerging as important regulators of cell identity and oncogenesis, but knowledge of their utility as prognostic markers in AML is limited. Here we analyze transcriptomic data from multiple cohorts of clinically annotated AML patients and report that (i) microarrays designed for coding gene expression can be repurposed to yield robust lincRNA expression data, (ii) some lincRNA genes are located in close proximity to hematopoietic coding genes and show strong expression correlations in AML, (iii) lincRNA gene expression patterns distinguish cytogenetic and molecular subtypes of AML, (iv) lincRNA signatures composed of three or four genes are independent predictors of clinical outcome and further dichotomize survival in European Leukemia Net (ELN) risk groups and (v) an analytical tool based on logistic regression analysis of quantitative PCR measurement of four lincRNA genes (LINC4) can be used to determine risk in AML.
Chiu, SK, Saw, J, Huang, Y, Sonderegger, SE, Wong, NC, Powell, DR, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE, Tremblay, CS & Curtis, DJ 2018, 'A novel role for Lyl1 in primitive erythropoiesis', DEVELOPMENT, vol. 145, no. 19.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Jing, D, Huang, Y, Liu, X, Sia, KCS, Zhang, JC, Tai, X, Wang, M, Toscan, CE, McCalmont, H, Evans, K, Mayoh, C, Poulos, RC, Span, M, Mi, J, Zhang, C, Wong, JWH, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Lock, RB 2018, 'Lymphocyte-Specific Chromatin Accessibility Pre-determines Glucocorticoid Resistance in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia', CANCER CELL, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 906-+.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Liu, Q, Thoms, JAI, Nunez, AC, Huang, Y, Knezevic, K, Packham, D, Poulos, RC, Williams, R, Beck, D, Hawkins, NJ, Ward, RL, Wong, JWH, Hesson, LB, Sloane, MA & Pimanda, JE 2018, 'Disruption of a-35 kb Enhancer Impairs CTCF Binding and MLH1 Expression in Colorectal Cells', CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH, vol. 24, no. 18, pp. 4602-4611.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Liu, K, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Liu, L, Zhao, W, Pimanda, JE & Zhou, X 2017, 'Annotating function to differentially expressed LincRNAs in myelodysplastic syndrome using a network-based method', Bioinformatics (Oxford, England), vol. 33, no. 17, pp. 2622-2630.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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© The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com Motivation: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in the regulation of diverse biological functions. The number of newly identified lncRNAs has increased dramatically in recent years but their expression and function have not yet been described from most diseases. To elucidate lncRNA function in human disease, we have developed a novel network based method (NLCFA) integrating correlations between lncRNA, protein coding genes and noncoding miRNAs. We have also integrated target gene associations and protein-protein interactions and designed our model to provide information on the combined influence of mRNAs, lncRNAs and miRNAs on cellular signal transduction networks.Results: We have generated lncRNA expression profiles from the CD34+ haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) from patients with Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and healthy donors. We report, for the first time, aberrantly expressed lncRNAs in MDS and further prioritize biologically relevant lncRNAs using the NLCFA. Taken together, our data suggests that aberrant levels of specific lncRNAs are intimately involved in network modules that control multiple cancer-associated signalling pathways and cellular processes. Importantly, our method can be applied to prioritize aberrantly expressed lncRNAs for functional validation in other diseases and biological contexts.Availability and implementation: The method is implemented in R language and Matlab.Contact: xizhou@wakehealth.edu.Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Schwarzer, A, Emmrich, S, Schmidt, F, Beck, D, Ng, M, Reimer, C, Adams, FF, Grasedieck, S, Witte, D, Käbler, S, Wong, JWH, Shah, A, Huang, Y, Jammal, R, Maroz, A, Jongen-Lavrencic, M, Schambach, A, Kuchenbauer, F, Pimanda, JE, Reinhardt, D, Heckl, D & Klusmann, J-H 2017, 'The non-coding RNA landscape of human hematopoiesis and leukemia.', Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-17.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Non-coding RNAs have emerged as crucial regulators of gene expression and cell fate decisions. However, their expression patterns and regulatory functions during normal and malignant human hematopoiesis are incompletely understood. Here we present a comprehensive resource defining the non-coding RNA landscape of the human hematopoietic system. Based on highly specific non-coding RNA expression portraits per blood cell population, we identify unique fingerprint non-coding RNAs-such as LINC00173 in granulocytes-and assign these to critical regulatory circuits involved in blood homeostasis. Following the incorporation of acute myeloid leukemia samples into the landscape, we further uncover prognostically relevant non-coding RNA stem cell signatures shared between acute myeloid leukemia blasts and healthy hematopoietic stem cells. Our findings highlight the importance of the non-coding transcriptome in the formation and maintenance of the human blood hierarchy.While micro-RNAs are known regulators of haematopoiesis and leukemogenesis, the role of long non-coding RNAs is less clear. Here the authors provide a non-coding RNA expression landscape of the human hematopoietic system, highlighting their role in the formation and maintenance of the human blood hierarchy.
Unnikrishnan, A, Papaemmanuil, E, Beck, D, Deshpande, NP, Verma, A, Kumari, A, Woll, PS, Richards, LA, Knezevic, K, Chandrakanthan, V, Thoms, JAI, Tursky, ML, Huang, Y, Ali, Z, Olivier, J, Galbraith, S, Kulasekararaj, AG, Tobiasson, M, Karimi, M, Pellagatti, A, Wilson, SR, Lindeman, R, Young, B, Ramakrishna, R, Arthur, C, Stark, R, Crispin, P, Curnow, J, Warburton, P, Roncolato, F, Boultwood, J, Lynch, K, Jacobsen, SEW, Mufti, GJ, Hellstrom-Lindberg, E, Wilkins, MR, MacKenzie, KL, Wong, JWH, Campbell, PJ & Pimanda, JE 2017, 'Integrative Genomics Identifies the Molecular Basis of Resistance to Azacitidine Therapy in Myelodysplastic Syndromes.', Cell Reports, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 572-585.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Myelodysplastic syndromes and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia are blood disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis and progressive marrow failure that can transform into acute leukemia. The DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine (AZA) is the most effective pharmacological option, but only ∼50% of patients respond. A response only manifests after many months of treatment and is transient. The reasons underlying AZA resistance are unknown, and few alternatives exist for non-responders. Here, we show that AZA responders have more hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) in the cell cycle. Non-responder HPC quiescence is mediated by integrin α5 (ITGA5) signaling and their hematopoietic potential improved by combining AZA with an ITGA5 inhibitor. AZA response is associated with the induction of an inflammatory response in HPCs in vivo. By molecular bar coding and tracking individual clones, we found that, although AZA alters the sub-clonal contribution to different lineages, founder clones are not eliminated and continue to drive hematopoiesis even in complete responders.
Avellino, R, Havermans, M, Erpelinck, C, Sanders, MA, Hoogenboezem, R, van de Werken, HJG, Rombouts, E, van Lom, K, van Strien, PMH, Gebhard, C, Rehli, M, Pimanda, J, Beck, D, Erkeland, S, Kuiken, T, de Looper, H, Groeschel, S, Touw, I, Bindels, E & Delwel, R 2016, 'An autonomous CEBPA enhancer specific for myeloid-lineage priming and neutrophilic differentiation', BLOOD, vol. 127, no. 24, pp. 2991-3003.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Botezatu, L, Michel, LC, Makishima, H, Schroeder, T, Germing, U, Haas, R, van der Reijden, B, Marneth, AE, Bergevoet, SM, Jansen, JH, Przychodzen, B, Wlodarski, M, Niemeyer, C, Platzbecker, U, Ehninger, G, Unnikrishnan, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, J, Hellstrom-Lindberg, E, Malcovati, L, Boultwood, J, Pellagatti, A, Papaemmanuil, E, Le Coutre, P, Kaeda, J, Opalka, B, Moroy, T, Duehrsen, U, Maciejewski, J & Khandanpour, C 2016, 'GFI1(36N) as a therapeutic and prognostic marker for myelodysplastic syndrome', EXPERIMENTAL HEMATOLOGY, vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 590-595.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Chandrakanthan, V, Yeola, A, Kwan, JC, Oliver, RA, Qiao, Q, Kang, YC, Zarzour, P, Beck, D, Boelen, L, Unnikrishnan, A, Villanueva, JE, Nunez, AC, Knezevic, K, Palu, C, Nasrallah, R, Carnell, M, Macmillan, A, Whan, R, Yu, Y, Hardy, P, Grey, ST, Gladbach, A, Delerue, F, Ittner, L, Mobbs, R, Walkley, CR, Purton, LE, Ward, RL, Wong, JWH, Hesson, LB, Walsh, W & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'PDGF-AB and 5-Azacytidine induce conversion of somatic cells into tissue-regenerative multipotent stem cells', PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, vol. 113, no. 16, pp. E2306-E2315.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Hesson, LB, Ng, B, Zarzour, P, Srivastava, S, Kwok, C-T, Packham, D, Nunez, AC, Beck, D, Ryan, R, Dower, A, Ford, CE, Pimanda, JE, Sloane, MA, Hawkins, NJ, Bourke, MJ, Wong, JWH & Ward, RL 2016, 'Integrated Genetic, Epigenetic, and Transcriptional Profiling Identifies Molecular Pathways in the Development of Laterally Spreading Tumors', MOLECULAR CANCER RESEARCH, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 1217-1228.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Huang, Y, Thoms, JAI, Tursky, ML, Knezevic, K, Beck, D, Chandrakanthan, V, Suryani, S, Olivier, J, Boulton, A, Glaros, EN, Thomas, SR, Lock, RB, MacKenzie, KL, Bushweller, JH, Wong, JWH & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'MAPK/ERK2 phosphorylates ERG at serine 283 in leukemic cells and promotes stem cell signatures and cell proliferation', LEUKEMIA, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 1552-1561.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Nasrallah, R, Fast, EM, Solaimani, P, Knezevic, K, Eliades, A, Patel, R, Thambyrajah, R, Unnikrishnan, A, Thoms, J, Beck, D, Vink, CS, Smith, A, Wong, J, Shepherd, M, Kent, D, Roychoudhuri, R, Paul, F, Klippert, J, Hammes, A, Willnow, T, Göttgens, B, Dzierzak, E, Zon, LI, Lacaud, G, Kouskoff, V & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'Identification of novel regulators of developmental hematopoiesis using Endoglin regulatory elements as molecular probes.', Blood, vol. 128, no. 15, pp. 1928-1939.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Enhancers are the primary determinants of cell identity, and specific promoter/enhancer combinations of Endoglin (ENG) have been shown to target blood and endothelium in the embryo. Here, we generated a series of embryonic stem cell lines, each targeted with reporter constructs driven by specific promoter/enhancer combinations of ENG, to evaluate their discriminative potential and value as molecular probes of the corresponding transcriptome. The Eng promoter (P) in combination with the -8/+7/+9-kb enhancers, targeted cells in FLK1 mesoderm that were enriched for blast colony forming potential, whereas the P/-8-kb enhancer targeted TIE2+/c-KIT+/CD41- endothelial cells that were enriched for hematopoietic potential. These fractions were isolated using reporter expression and their transcriptomes profiled by RNA-seq. There was high concordance between our signatures and those from embryos with defects at corresponding stages of hematopoiesis. Of the 6 genes that were upregulated in both hemogenic mesoderm and hemogenic endothelial fractions targeted by the reporters, LRP2, a multiligand receptor, was the only gene that had not previously been associated with hematopoiesis. We show that LRP2 is indeed involved in definitive hematopoiesis and by doing so validate the use of reporter gene-coupled enhancers as probes to gain insights into transcriptional changes that facilitate cell fate transitions.
Perera, D, Poulos, RC, Shah, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2016, 'Differential DNA repair underlies mutation hotspots at active promoters in cancer genomes', NATURE, vol. 532, no. 7598, pp. 259-+.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Richmond, J, Robbins, A, Evans, K, Beck, D, Kurmasheva, RT, Billups, CA, Carol, H, Heatley, S, Sutton, R, Marshall, GM, White, D, Pimanda, J, Houghton, PJ, Smith, MA & Lock, RB 2016, 'Acute Sensitivity of Ph-like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to the SMAC-Mimetic Birinapant', CANCER RESEARCH, vol. 76, no. 15, pp. 4579-4591.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Shields, BJ, Jackson, JT, Metcalf, D, Shi, W, Huang, Q, Garnham, AL, Glaser, SP, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE, Bogue, CW, Smyth, GK, Alexander, WS & McCormack, MP 2016, 'Acute myeloid leukemia requires Hhex to enable PRC2-mediated epigenetic repression of Cdkn2a', GENES & DEVELOPMENT, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 78-91.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Unnikrishnan, A, Guan, YF, Huang, Y, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Peirs, S, Knezevic, K, Ma, S, de Walle, IV, de Jong, I, Ali, Z, Zhong, L, Raftery, MJ, Taghon, T, Larsson, J, MacKenzie, KL, Van Vlierberghe, P, Wong, JWH & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'A quantitative proteomics approach identifies ETV6 and IKZF1 as new regulators of an ERG-driven transcriptional network.', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 44, no. 22, pp. 10644-10661.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Aberrant stem cell-like gene regulatory networks are a feature of leukaemogenesis. The ETS-related gene (ERG), an important regulator of normal haematopoiesis, is also highly expressed in T-ALL and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). However, the transcriptional regulation of ERG in leukaemic cells remains poorly understood. In order to discover transcriptional regulators of ERG, we employed a quantitative mass spectrometry-based method to identify factors binding the 321 bp ERG +85 stem cell enhancer region in MOLT-4 T-ALL and KG-1 AML cells. Using this approach, we identified a number of known binders of the +85 enhancer in leukaemic cells along with previously unknown binders, including ETV6 and IKZF1. We confirmed that ETV6 and IKZF1 were also bound at the +85 enhancer in both leukaemic cells and in healthy human CD34+ haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Knockdown experiments confirmed that ETV6 and IKZF1 are transcriptional regulators not just of ERG, but also of a number of genes regulated by a densely interconnected network of seven transcription factors. At last, we show that ETV6 and IKZF1 expression levels are positively correlated with expression of a number of heptad genes in AML and high expression of all nine genes confers poorer overall prognosis.
Jing, D, Bhadri, VA, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Yakob, NA, Wong, JWH, Knezevic, K, Pimanda, JE & Lock, RB 2015, 'Opposing regulation of BIM and BCL2 controls glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells', BLOOD, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 273-283.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Poulos, RC, Thoms, JAI, Shah, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Systematic Screening of Promoter Regions Pinpoints Functional Cis-Regulatory Mutations in a Cutaneous Melanoma Genome', MOLECULAR CANCER RESEARCH, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 1218-1226.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Tursky, ML, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Huang, Y, Kumari, A, Unnikrishnan, A, Knezevic, K, Evans, K, Richards, LA, Lee, E, Morris, J, Goldberg, L, Izraeli, S, Wong, JWH, Olivier, J, Lock, RB, MacKenzie, KL & Pimanda, JE 2015, 'Overexpression of ERG in cord blood progenitors promotes expansion and recapitulates molecular signatures of high ERG leukemias', LEUKEMIA, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 819-827.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Zarzour, P, Boelen, L, Luciani, F, Beck, D, Sakthianandeswaren, A, Mouradov, D, Sieber, OM, Hawkins, NJ, Hesson, LB, Ward, RL & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Array Profiling Identifies Distinct Chromosomal Aberration Patterns Across Colorectal Adenomas and Carcinomas', GENES CHROMOSOMES & CANCER, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 303-314.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Brandl, MB, Pasquier, E, Li, F, Beck, D, Zhang, S, Zhao, H, Kavallaris, M & Wong, STC 2014, 'Computational analysis of image-based drug profiling predicts synergistic drug combinations: applications in triple-negative breast cancer.', Molecular Oncology, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 1548-1560.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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An imaged-based profiling and analysis system was developed to predict clinically effective synergistic drug combinations that could accelerate the identification of effective multi-drug therapies for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer and other challenging malignancies. The identification of effective drug combinations for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was achieved by integrating high-content screening, computational analysis, and experimental biology. The approach was based on altered cellular phenotypes induced by 55 FDA-approved drugs and biologically active compounds, acquired using fluorescence microscopy and retained in multivariate compound profiles. Dissimilarities between compound profiles guided the identification of 5 combinations, which were assessed for qualitative interaction on TNBC cell growth. The combination of the microtubule-targeting drug vinblastine with KSP/Eg5 motor protein inhibitors monastrol or ispinesib showed potent synergism in 3 independent TNBC cell lines, which was not substantiated in normal fibroblasts. The synergistic interaction was mediated by an increase in mitotic arrest with cells demonstrating typical ispinesib-induced monopolar mitotic spindles, which translated into enhanced apoptosis induction. The antitumour activity of the combination vinblastine/ispinesib was confirmed in an orthotopic mouse model of TNBC. Compared to single drug treatment, combination treatment significantly reduced tumour growth without causing increased toxicity. Image-based profiling and analysis led to the rapid discovery of a drug combination effective against TNBC in vitro and in vivo, and has the potential to lead to the development of new therapeutic options in other hard-to-treat cancers.
Chacon, D, Beck, D, Perera, D, Wong, JW & Pimanda, JE 2014, 'BloodChIP: a database of comparative genome-wide transcription factor binding profiles in human blood cells.', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 42, no. D1, pp. D172-D177.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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The BloodChIP database (http://www.med.unsw.edu.au/CRCWeb.nsf/page/BloodChIP) supports exploration and visualization of combinatorial transcription factor (TF) binding at a particular locus in human CD34-positive and other normal and leukaemic cells or retrieval of target gene sets for user-defined combinations of TFs across one or more cell types. Increasing numbers of genome-wide TF binding profiles are being added to public repositories, and this trend is likely to continue. For the power of these data sets to be fully harnessed by experimental scientists, there is a need for these data to be placed in context and easily accessible for downstream applications. To this end, we have built a user-friendly database that has at its core the genome-wide binding profiles of seven key haematopoietic TFs in human stem/progenitor cells. These binding profiles are compared with binding profiles in normal differentiated and leukaemic cells. We have integrated these TF binding profiles with chromatin marks and expression data in normal and leukaemic cell fractions. All queries can be exported into external sites to construct TF-gene and protein-protein networks and to evaluate the association of genes with cellular processes and tissue expression.
Diffner, E, Beck, D, Gudgin, E, Thoms, JAI, Knezevic, K, Pridans, C, Foster, S, Goode, D, Khong Lim, W, Boelen, L, Metzeler, KH, Micklem, G, Bohlander, SK, Buske, C, Burnett, A, Ottersbach, K, Vassiliou, GS, Olivier, J, Wong, JWH, Gottgens, B, Huntly, BJ & Pimanda, JE 2014, 'Erratum: Activity of a heptad of transcription factors is associated with stem cell programs and clinical outcome in acute myeloid leukemia (Blood (2013) 121:12 (2289-2300))', Blood, vol. 123, no. 18, p. 2901.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Perera, D, Chacon, D, Thoms, JAI, Poulos, RC, Shlien, A, Beck, D, Campbell, PJ, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2014, 'OncoCis: annotation of cis-regulatory mutations in cancer.', Genome Biology, vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 1-14.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Whole genome sequencing has enabled the identification of thousands of somatic mutations within non-coding genomic regions of individual cancer samples. However, identification of mutations that potentially alter gene regulation remains a major challenge. Here we present OncoCis, a new method that enables identification of potential cis-regulatory mutations using cell type-specific genome and epigenome-wide datasets along with matching gene expression data. We demonstrate that the use of cell type-specific information and gene expression can significantly reduce the number of candidate cis-regulatory mutations compared with existing tools designed for the annotation of cis-regulatory SNPs. The OncoCis webserver is freely accessible at https://powcs.med.unsw.edu.au/OncoCis/.
Beck, D, Thoms, JA, Perera, D, Schütte, J, Unnikrishnan, A, Knezevic, K, Kinston, SJ, Wilson, NK, O'Brien, TA, Göttgens, B, Wong, JW & Pimanda, JE 2013, 'Genome-wide analysis of transcriptional regulators in human HSPCs reveals a densely interconnected network of coding and noncoding genes.', Blood, vol. 122, no. 14, pp. e12-e22.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Genome-wide combinatorial binding patterns for key transcription factors (TFs) have not been reported for primary human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), and have constrained analysis of the global architecture of molecular circuits controlling these cells. Here we provide high-resolution genome-wide binding maps for a heptad of key TFs (FLI1, ERG, GATA2, RUNX1, SCL, LYL1, and LMO2) in human CD34(+) HSPCs, together with quantitative RNA and microRNA expression profiles. We catalog binding of TFs at coding genes and microRNA promoters, and report that combinatorial binding of all 7 TFs is favored and associated with differential expression of genes and microRNA in HSPCs. We also uncover a previously unrecognized association between FLI1 and RUNX1 pairing in HSPCs, we establish a correlation between the density of histone modifications that mark active enhancers and the number of overlapping TFs at a peak, we demonstrate bivalent histone marks at promoters of heptad target genes in CD34(+) cells that are poised for later expression, and we identify complex relationships between specific microRNAs and coding genes regulated by the heptad. Taken together, these data reveal the power of integrating multifactor sequencing of chromatin immunoprecipitates with coding and noncoding gene expression to identify regulatory circuits controlling cell identity.
Diffner, E, Beck, D, Gudgin, E, Thoms, JAI, Knezevic, K, Pridans, C, Foster, S, Goode, D, Weng, KL, Boelen, L, Metzeler, KH, Micklem, G, Bohlander, SK, Buske, C, Burnett, A, Ottersbach, K, Vassiliou, GS, Olivier, J, Wong, JWH, Goettgens, B, Huntly, BJ & Pimanda, JE 2013, 'Activity of a heptad of transcription factors is associated with stem cell programs and clinical outcome in acute myeloid leukemia', BLOOD, vol. 121, no. 12, pp. 2289-2300.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Goldberg, L, Tijssen, MR, Birger, Y, Hannah, RL, Kinston, SJ, Schuette, J, Beck, D, Knezeyic, K, Schiby, G, Jacob-Hirsch, J, Biran, A, Kloog, Y, Marcucci, G, Bloomfield, CD, Aplan, PD, Pimanda, JE, Goettgens, B & Izraeli, S 2013, 'Genome-scale expression and transcription factor binding profiles reveal therapeutic targets in transgenic ERG myeloid leukemia', BLOOD, vol. 122, no. 15, pp. 2694-2703.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Beck, D, Brandl, MB, Boelen, L, Unnikrishnan, A, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2012, 'Signal analysis for genome-wide maps of histone modifications measured by ChIP-seq', BIOINFORMATICS, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 1062-1069.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
Beck, D, Ayers, S, Wen, J, Brandl, MB, Pham, TD, Webb, P, Chang, C-C & Zhou, X 2011, 'Integrative analysis of next generation sequencing for small non-coding RNAs and transcriptional regulation in Myelodysplastic Syndromes.', BMC Medical Genomics, vol. 4, pp. 1-16.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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BACKGROUND: Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDSS) are pre-leukemic disorders with increasing incident rates worldwide, but very limited treatment options. Little is known about small regulatory RNAs and how they contribute to pathogenesis, progression and transcriptome changes in MDS. METHODS: Patients' primary marrow cells were screened for short RNAs (RNA-seq) using next generation sequencing. Exon arrays from the same cells were used to profile gene expression and additional measures on 98 patients obtained. Integrative bioinformatics algorithms were proposed, and pathway and ontology analysis performed. RESULTS: In low-grade MDS, observations implied extensive post-transcriptional regulation via microRNAs (miRNA) and the recently discovered Piwi interacting RNAs (piRNA). Large expression differences were found for MDS-associated and novel miRNAs, including 48 sequences matching to miRNA star (miRNA*) motifs. The detected species were predicted to regulate disease stage specific molecular functions and pathways, including apoptosis and response to DNA damage. In high-grade MDS, results suggested extensive post-translation editing via transfer RNAs (tRNAs), providing a potential link for reduced apoptosis, a hallmark for this disease stage. Bioinformatics analysis confirmed important regulatory roles for MDS linked miRNAs and TFs, and strengthened the biological significance of miRNA*. The "RNA polymerase II promoters" were identified as the tightest controlled biological function. We suggest their control by a miRNA dominated feedback loop, which might be linked to the dramatically different miRNA amounts seen between low and high-grade MDS. DISCUSSION: The presented results provide novel findings that build a basis of further investigations of diagnostic biomarkers, targeted therapies and studies on MDS pathogenesis.
Pham, TD, Brandl, M & Beck, D 2009, 'Fuzzy declustering-based vector quantization', Pattern Recognition, vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 2570-2577.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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Vector quantization is a useful approach for multi-dimensional data compression and pattern classification. One of the most popular techniques for vector quantization design is the LBG (Linde, Buzo, Gray) algorithm. To address the problem of producing poor estimate of vector centroids which are subjected to biased data in vector quantization; we propose a fuzzy declustering strategy for the LBG algorithm. The proposed technique calculates appropriate declustering weights to adjust the global data distribution. Using the result of fuzzy declustering-based vector quantization design, we incorporate the notion of fuzzy partition entropy into the distortion measures that can be useful for classification of spectral features. Experimental results obtained from simulated and real data sets demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed approach. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pham, TD, Wang, H, Zhou, X, Beck, D, Brandl, M, Hoehn, G, Azok, J, Brennan, ML, Hazen, SL, Li, K & Wong, STC 2008, 'Computational prediction models for early detection of risk of cardiovascular events using mass spectrometry data', IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 636-643.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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Early prediction of the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with chest pain is critical in order to provide appropriate medical care for those with positive diagnosis. This paper introduces a computational methodology for predicting such events in the context of robust computerized classification using mass spectrometry data of blood samples collected from patients in emergency departments. We applied the computational theories of statistical and geostatistical linear prediction models to extract effective features of the mass spectra and a simple decision logic to classify disease and control samples for the purpose of early detection. While the statistical and geostatistical techniques provide better results than those obtained from some other methods, the geostatistical approach yields superior results in terms of sensitivity and specificity in various designs of the data set for validation, training, and testing. The proposed computational strategies are very promising for predicting major adverse cardiac events within six months. © 2008 IEEE.
Pham, TD, Beck, D & Yan, H 2006, 'Spectral pattern comparison methods for cancer classification based on microarray gene expression data', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 2425-2430.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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We present, in this paper, two spectral pattern comparison methods for cancer classification using microarray gene expression data. The proposed methods are different from other current classifiers in the ways features are selected and pattern similarities measured. In addition, these spectral methods do not require any data preprocessing which is neccessary for many other classification techniques. Expertimental results using three popular microarray data sets demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the spectral pattern classifiers. © 2006 IEEE.
Beck, DA, Brady, BHG & Grant, DR 1997, 'Induced stress and microseismicity in the 3000 Orebody, Mount Isa', Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 221-233.
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The 3000 Orebody is one of two orebodies in the Deep Copper Mine at Mount Isa, Australia. Owing to concerns about potential shaft pillar instabilities, an integrated seismic system was introduced to monitor seismic activity associated with pillar and country rock deformation. Coupled with numerical modelling of the stress regime, the system may assist in the characterization of rock mass damage resulting from mining, and perhaps the identification of near- and far-field geological structures that affect slope performance. A study was undertaken to quantify the seismicity and to determine potential applications of the seismic technology. The relation between geological structure and seismicity is strong, suggesting good prospects for the use of the system in the ground-control activities noted above. The induction of seismicity, which involves small magnitude events, is associated with reduction of normal stress on planes of weakness, suggesting that stress path may be an important factor in the level of seismicity observed in hard rock mines.
Jing, D, Huang, Y, Liu, X, Sia, K, Poulos, RC, Span, M, Zhang, C, Mi, J, Wong, JWH, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Lock, RB 2018, 'Lymphocyte-specific chromatin accessibility predetermines glucocorticoid resistance in acute lymphoblastic leukemia', CANCER RESEARCH, Annual Meeting of the American-Association-for-Cancer-Research (AACR), AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH, Chicago, IL.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Schwarzer, A, Emmrich, S, Beck, D, Schmidt, F, Ng, M, Adams, FF, Witte, D, Kaebler, S, Wong, JWH, Shah, A, Jammal, R, Maroz, A, Reimer, C, Pimanda, JE, Reinhardt, D, Heckl, D & Klusmann, J-H 2017, 'Mapping the Lncrna-Landscape of Human Hematopoiesis and Leukemia Reveals Stem Cell Non-Coding Gene Expression Programs', ANNALS OF HEMATOLOGY, SPRINGER, pp. S51-S51.
Beck, D, Thoms, J, Palu, C, Herold, T, Shah, A, Olivier, J, Boelen, L, Huang, Y, Chacon, D, Brown, A, Babic, M, Hahn, C, Perugini, M, Zhou, X, Huntly, B, Berdel, W, Woermann, B, Buechner, T, Hiddemann, W, Bohlander, S, Scott, H, Lewis, I, D'Andrea, R, Wong, J & Pimanda, J 2016, 'Integrative analysis of lincrna expression in 922 acute myeloid leukemia patients reveals multiple prognostic gene signatures', Haematologica, pp. 208-209.
Chandrakanthan, V, Jair, K, Oliver, R, Qiao, Q, Kang, YC, Zarzour, P, Beck, D, Boelen, L, Unnikrihnan, A, Villanueva, J, Nunez, A, Knezevic, K, Palu, C, Nasrallah, R, Hardy, P, Grey, S, Whan, R, Walkley, C, Purton, LE, Ward, R, Wong, J, Hesson, L, Ittner, L, Walsh, W & Pimanda, J 2015, 'PDGF-AB AND AZACITIDINE INDUCED REPROGRAMMING OF SOMATIC CELLS INTO TISSUE REGENERATIVE MULTNOTENT STEM CELLS', EXPERIMENTAL HEMATOLOGY, 44th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International-Society-for-Experimental-Hematology (ISEH), ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Kyoto, JAPAN, pp. S89-S89.View/Download from: Publisher's site
Beck, D, Palu, C, Shah, A, Herold, T, Olivier, J, Valk, PJM, Delwel, R, Bohlander, SK, Wong, JW & Pimanda, JE 2014, 'Integrative Analysis of Lincrna Expression and Clinical Annotations Reveals a Signature of 17 Genes with Prognostic Significance in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)', BLOOD, 56th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Hematology, AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY, San Francisco, CA.
Beck, D, Brandl, M, Pham, TD, Chang, CC & Zhou, X 2011, 'In-silico identification of micro-loops in Myelodysplastic Syndromes', AIP Conference Proceedings, AIP Publishing, pp. 263-271.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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Micro-loops are regulatory network motifs that leverage transcriptional and posttranscriptional control to effectively regulate the transcriptome. In this paper a regulatory network for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDSs) was constructed from the literature and publicly available data sources. The network was filtered using data from deep-sequencing of small RNAs, exon and microarrays. Motif discovery showed that micro-loops might exist in MDS. We further used the identified micro-loops and performed basic network analysis to identify the known disease gene RUNX1/AML, as well as miRNA family hsa-mir-181. This suggested that the concept of micro-loops can be applied to enhance disease gene identification and biomarker discovery. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.
Brandl, MB, Beck, D & Pham, TD 2011, 'Application of fuzzy c-means and joint-feature-clustering to detect redundancies of image-features in drug combinations studies of breast cancer', AIP Conference Proceedings, pp. 65-72.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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The high dimensionality of image-based dataset can be a drawback for classification accuracy. In this study, we propose the application of fuzzy c-means clustering, cluster validity indices and the notation of a joint-feature-clustering matrix to find redundancies of image-features. The introduced matrix indicates how frequently features are grouped in a mutual cluster. The resulting information can be used to find data-derived feature prototypes with a common biological meaning, reduce data storage as well as computation times and improve the classification accuracy. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.
Mao, Y, Cui, K, Lulu, W, Zhao, H, Nie, F, Brandl, M, Beck, D, Gao, L & Wong, S 2011, 'An in-silico approach for drug repositioning to tumour anti-migration using an integrated genomic strategy', Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE/NIH Life Science Systems and Applications Workshop, LiSSA 2011, Life Science Systems and Applications Workshop, IEEE, Bethesda, MD, USA, pp. 88-91.View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site
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Cell migration is a key step for deterioration of many in situ or metastasis malignant tumours. Tumour anti-migration is a promising strategy to treat cancer, but corresponding drugs developed under such a strategy are still in dire poverty, partly due to the lengthly process of drug trials and approval required by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Given there are thousands of FDA approved drugs in the market, we believe that drug repositioning may provide a fast and cost-effective way to identify potential anti-migration drugs. In this paper, an in-silico drug screening method using a genomic strategy is proposed for the goal, in which genomic signature identification combined with support vector machine modelling is adopted to estimate drug efficacy. And a high-throughput, sensitive, 3-dimensional invasion assay by quantitative bioluminescence imaging proved the performance of proposed method on in vitro disease models. © 2011 IEEE.
Beck, D & Wong, STC 2009, 'Conference scence: Wake-up call for the engineering and biomedical science communities in nanomedicine', Nanomedicine, pp. 515-517.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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The IEEE-NIH 4th life Science Systems and Applications Workshop 2009 (LISSA '09) was jointly organized by the IEEE LISSA Technical Committee and the NIH Nano Task Force. It was endorsed by the NIH Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) and the National Library of Medicine. The workshop was held in the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, USA. It took place on the 9-10 April, 2009, during the NIH NanoWeek and had approximately 200 delegates from around the globe (including North America, Europe, Asia and Australia) from both engineering and biomedical science disciplines. The conference featured around 40 talks, including nine plenary speakers emphasizing current state-of-the-art nanotechnology practices, developments and industry applications. All talks were scheduled in three oral and seven special sessions, as well as three breakout sessions. In addition, the interactive poster sessions hosted over 30 abstracts and attracted much attention from the audience; these sessions were readily used by many attendees to connect with colleagues of similar interest. In this article, we provide some of the highlights from the workshop. © 2009 Future Medicine Ltd.
Beck, D, Zhou, X, Pham, T, Sabatini, B & Wong, STC 2009, 'An image driven systems biology approach for neurodegenerative disease studies in the TSC-mTOR pathway', 2009 IEEE/NIH Life Science Systems and Applications Workshop, LiSSA 2009, pp. 36-39.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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In this brief paper we present an overview of the TSC-mTOR pathway and its importance in neurodegenerative disease (ND). We illustrate the influence of ND on dendritic spine morphology. Then we discuss some details of functional gene networks (FGN) and use this information to propose an image driven systems biology approach for the construction of a FGN for ND. We conclude on its importance and the prospective outcome of our study. © 2009 IEEE.
Pham, TD, Beck, D, Brandl, M & Zhou, X 2008, 'Classification of proteomic signals by block kriging error matching', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), pp. 281-288.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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One of recent advances in biotechnology offers high-throughput mass-spectrometry data for disease detection, prevention, and biomarker discovery. In fact proteomics has recently become an attractive topic of research in biomedicine. Signal processing and pattern classification techniques are inherently essential for analyzing proteomic data. In this paper the estimation method of block kriging is utilized to derive an error matching strategy for classifying proteomic signals with a particular application to the prediction of cardiovascular events using clinical mass spectrometry data. The proposed block kriging based classification technique has been found to be superior to other recently developed methods. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.
Pham, TD, Brandl, M & Beck, D 2008, 'A new approach for cancer classification using microarray gene expression data', IASTED International Symposium on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, CBB 2008, pp. 247-253.
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We propose in this paper a new approach for classification of cancers using microarray gene expression data. The proposed method adopts the concept of fuzzy declustering strategy for vector quantization algorithm. The notion of fuzzy partition entropy is coupled with the distortion measures for classifying spectral features of microarray data. Experimental results obtained from real datasets demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed approach.
Pham, TD, Wang, H, Zhou, X, Beck, D, Brandl, M, Hoehn, G, Azok, J, Brennan, ML, Hazen, SL & Wong, STC 2008, 'Classification of mass spectrometry based protein markers by kriging error matching', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), pp. 82-94.View/Download from: Publisher's site
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Discovery of biomarkers using serum proteomic patterns is currently one of the most attractive interdisciplinary research areas in computational life science. This new proteomic approach has the clinical significance in being able to detect disease in its early stages and to develop new drugs for disease treatment and prevention. This paper introduces a novel pattern classification strategy for identifying protein biomarkers using mass spectrometry data of blood samples collected from patients in emergency department monitored for major adverse cardiac events within six months. We applied the theory of geostatistics and a kriging error matching scheme for identifying protein biomarkers that are able to provide an average classification rate superior to other current methods. The proposed strategy is very promising as a general computational bioinformatic model for proteomic-pattern based biomarker discovery. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.
Pham, TD, Crane, DI, Tannock, D & Beck, D 2004, 'Kullback-leibler dissimilarity of markov models for phylogenetic tree reconstruction', 2004 International Symposium on Intelligent Multimedia, Video and Speech Processing, ISIMP 2004, pp. 157-160.
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In this paper, we introduce the Kullback-Leibler dissimilarity measure of Markov-chain models for unaligned DNA sequences with application to the phylogenetic tree reconstruction of complete mammalian mitochondrial genomes. The tree obtained by our approach is generally in agreement with those obtained from other methods. Our proposed method is computationally efficient and very easy for computer implementation.
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