AMDA: an R package for the automated microarray data analysis

BACKGROUND: Microarrays are routinely used to assess mRNA transcript levels on a genome-wide scale. Large amount of microarray datasets are now available in several databases, and new experiments are constantly being performed. In spite of this fact, few and limited tools exist for quickly and easily analyzing the results. Microarray analysis can be challenging for researchers without the necessary training and it can be time-consuming for service providers with many users. RESULTS: To address these problems we have developed an automated microarray data analysis (AMDA) software, which provides scientists with an easy and integrated system for the analysis of Affymetrix microarray experiments. AMDA is free and it is available as an R package. It is based on the Bioconductor project that provides a number of powerful bioinformatics and microarray analysis tools. This automated pipeline integrates different functions available in the R and Bioconductor projects with newly developed functions. AMDA covers all of the steps, performing a full data analysis, including image analysis, quality controls, normalization, selection of differentially expressed genes, clustering, correspondence analysis and functional evaluation. Finally a LaTEX document is dynamically generated depending on the performed analysis steps. The generated report contains comments and analysis results as well as the references to several files for a deeper investigation. CONCLUSION: AMDA is freely available as an R package under the GPL license. The package as well as an example analysis report can be downloaded in the Services/Bioinformatics section of the Genopolis http://www.genopolis.it/.