Development and Usage of Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) Standards

Chris Stoeckert, University of Pennsylvania
I will describe the efforts of MGED and the progress we have made in incorporating these standards into our RNA Abundance Database (RAD, Stoeckert et al. Bioinformatics 2001). The MGED mission statement: The Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) society is an international organization for facilitating the sharing of microarray data from functional genomics and proteomics experiments. MGED was established as a grass roots movement in a meeting in November 1999 in Cambridge, UK (Nature 403, 699-700). Current tasks involve establishing standards for microarray data annotation and representation, facilitating the creation of microarray databases and providing infrastructure for dissemination of experimental and data transformation protocols. Long term goals for the future will extend the mission to other functional genomics and proteomics high throughput technologies. To achieve its goals the MGED society maintains a web-site (www.mged.org), and organizes conferences, tutorials and workshops on a regular basis. Four working groups focusing on microarray experiment annotation, development of data models and exchange formats, development of ontologies for microarray experiment description, and development of microarray experiment and data transformation protocols are maintaining e-mail discussion groups.