A measurement error model for microarray data analysis

Microarray technology has been widely used to analyze the gene expression levels by detecting fluorescence intensity in a high throughput fashion. However, since the measurement error produced from various sources in microarray experiments is heterogeneous and too large to be ignored, we propose here a measurement error model for microarray data processing, by which the standard deviation of the measurement error is demonstrated to be linearly increased with fluorescence intensity. A robust algorithm, which estimates the parameters of the measurement error model from a single microarray without replicated spots, is provided. The model and algorithm for estimating of the parameters from a given data set are tested on both the real data set and the simulated data set, and the result has been proven satisfactory. And, combining the measurement error model with traditional Z-test method, a full statistical model has been developed. It can significantly improve the statistical inference for identifying differentially expressed genes.