System and method for differential analysis

The present disclosure includes systems and methods for performing a plurality of base statistical analysis on a dataset to yield multiple, different base statistics with respect to a first predetermined number of features. The dataset and the base statistics can be used to find a transformation that determines significant features while controlling a false discovery rate (FDR) to be below a target FDR threshold (Ψ), wherein a second predetermined number of features are assumed to be independent from each other. Using the transformation, a composite index can be generated that represents a synthesis of the base statistics and a report can be generated that indicates at least the relative presence of the significant features in the dataset using the composite index.