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The role of bioinformatics in studying rheumatic and autoimmune disorders

Nature Reviews Rheumatology volume 7, pages 489–494 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the past decade, the availability and abundance of individual-level molecular data, such as gene expression, proteomics and sequence data, has enabled the use of integrative computational approaches to pose and answer novel questions about disease. In this article, we discuss several examples of applications of bioinformatics techniques to study autoimmune and rheumatic disorders. We focus our discussion on how integrative techniques can be applied to analyze gene expression and genetic variation data across different diseases, and discuss the implications of such analyses. We also outline current challenges and future directions of these approaches. We show that integrative computational methods are essential for translational research and provide a powerful opportunity to improve human health by refining the current knowledge about diagnostics, therapeutics and mechanisms of disease pathogenesis.

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Figure 1: Levels of integrative analysis.
Figure 2: Integrative analysis of GWAS data.
Figure 3: Integrative analysis of drug-induced and disease gene expression data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, the Hewlett Packard Foundation, US National Library of Medicine (R01 LM009719 and T15 LM007033), Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation. We thank the anonymous reviewers for helping us improve the manuscript and members of the Butte Lab from Stanford University for constructive discussion.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Informatics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 251 Campus Drive Room 163, Stanford, 94305-5415, CA, USA

    Marina Sirota

  2. Division of Systems Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 251 Campus Drive Room 163, Stanford, 94305-5415, CA, USA

    Atul J. Butte

Authors
  1. Marina Sirota
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  2. Atul J. Butte
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Contributions

M. Sirota and A. J. Butte contributed equally to all aspects of preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marina Sirota.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Sirota, M., Butte, A. The role of bioinformatics in studying rheumatic and autoimmune disorders. Nat Rev Rheumatol 7, 489–494 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2011.87

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