%0 Journal Article
%T MARS: Microarray analysis, retrieval, and storage system
%A Michael Maurer
%A Robert Molidor
%A Alexander Sturn
%A Juergen Hartler
%A Hubert Hackl
%A Gernot Stocker
%A Andreas Prokesch
%A Marcel Scheideler
%A Zlatko Trajanoski
%J BMC Bioinformatics
%D 2005
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2105-6-101
%X MARS (Microarray Analysis and Retrieval System) provides a comprehensive MIAME supportive suite for storing, retrieving, and analyzing multi color microarray data. The system comprises a laboratory information management system (LIMS), a quality control management, as well as a sophisticated user management system. MARS is fully integrated into an analytical pipeline of microarray image analysis, normalization, gene expression clustering, and mapping of gene expression data onto biological pathways. The incorporation of ontologies and the use of MAGE-ML enables an export of studies stored in MARS to public repositories and other databases accepting these documents.We have developed an integrated system tailored to serve the specific needs of microarray based research projects using a unique fusion of Web based and standalone applications connected to the latest J2EE application server technology. The presented system is freely available for academic and non-profit institutions. More information can be found at http://genome.tugraz.at webcite.Microarray analysis has become a widely used technique for the study of gene-expression patterns on a genomic scale [1,2]. Oligonucleotide and cDNA arrays have been utilized to study mRNA [3] and protein levels [4], to decipher protein-DNA interactions [5], to analyze the DNA copy number [6], to detect methylated sequences [7], and to analyze gene phenotypes in living mammalian cells [8]. Microarrays represent a very complex, multi step technique involving array fabrication, labeling, hybridization, and data analysis. Currently, most laboratories are using either one labeled sample (Affymetrix microarrays) or two labeled samples (cDNA microarrays) for hybridizations, but several applications have been established were three color microarrays are used [9,10]. State-of-the-art microarrays can have from several hundred up to tens of thousands of elements annotated by dozens of parameters. Information on details of the bench work, t
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/6/101