Abstract
Microarray analysis has become a widely used tool for the generation of gene expression data on a genomic scale. Although many significant results have been derived from microarray studies, one limitation has been the lack of standards for presenting and exchanging such data. Here we present a proposal, the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME), that describes the minimum information required to ensure that microarray data can be easily interpreted and that results derived from its analysis can be independently verified. The ultimate goal of this work is to establish a standard for recording and reporting microarray-based gene expression data, which will in turn facilitate the establishment of databases and public repositories and enable the development of data analysis tools. With respect to MIAME, we concentrate on defining the content and structure of the necessary information rather than the technical format for capturing it.
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Acknowledgements
The MIAME document is a result of the work of many people. The idea was conceived during an international meeting organized by the EBI in November 1999 to discuss gene expression databases8, during which a preliminary version of the MIAME document was produced. A microarray annotations mailing list was created and many of the members of this mailing list contributed to subsequent drafts. We would particularly like to acknowledge G. Barton, K. Henrick and J-J. Riethoven, M. Bittner, R. Bumgarner, M. Cherry, T. Freeman, J. Hoheisel and his team, A. Lash, H. Mangalam, T. Preiss, A. Richter, C. Schwager, M. Ringwald, Y. Tateno and R. Young. The document was extensively discussed in a meeting of the MGED steering committee meeting at the US National Institutes of Health in November 2000, where the current version of MIAME was effectively prepared. The final additions to the document were made during the MGED 3 conference1 (http://www.mged.org/). Although the MGED is a grass-roots movement and does not presently have a dedicated funding, the authors of this paper have been funded from contributions from various sources, including the Industry Support Programme at the EBI, Lipper Foundation, Medical Research Council, Incyte Genomics and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the US NIH.
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Brazma, A., Hingamp, P., Quackenbush, J. et al. Minimum information about a microarray experiment (MIAME)—toward standards for microarray data. Nat Genet 29, 365–371 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1201-365
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1201-365
