Researchers develop computer application to 'read' medical literature, find data rel...( s) have in common most researchers rea...)

s) have in common, most researchers read volumes of published scientific literature and papers using the MEDLINE database. IRIDESCENT aids researchers by allowing object sets within this network to be queried to identify shared, statistical relationships by comparing how frequently the sets appear relative to random probability.

Indexed MEDLINE articles are growing exponentially, reflecting an explosion of information driven by technological improvements in generating data. The database currently contains more than 4,600 journals and a total of 12.7 million records written during the past 35 years, with another 500,000 abstracts added annually, the researchers said.

IRIDESCENT can identify general themes, Dr. Garner said, along with statistically exceptional groupings within the list (such as drugs affecting the activity of a group of genes). Researchers also can infer how cohesive an experimental grouping is based upon relationships documented in the literature and identify missing members in a set by their relationship to the group as a whole.

"Many new high throughput technologies, such as microarrays for gene expression analysis, generate so much data that it is often hard to interpret," Dr. Garner said. "IRIDESCENT can do a much better job because it emulates the scientific thought process. Having assimilated all of MEDLINE, IRIDESCENT can compile diverse facts to present a list of 'hypotheses' to the user for finding hidden knowledge in the data."

Dr. Wren noted that scientists are still a "long way off from turning over the interpretation phase of research to computers. But, they are not only useful in organizing this growing body of scientific knowledge, they also are rapidly becoming indispensable."

Initiated in September 2003, etexx Biopharmaceuticals creates new uses for existing Food and Drug Administration-approved compounds for various classes of cardiac disease for which no therapeutics are availa
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Contact: Scott Maier
scott.maier@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
22-Jan-2004

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