Optimizing Experimental Design in Genetics

Researchers in the life sciences (i.e., healthcare and agriculture) commonly use heuristics to process and interpret the vast amount of available DNA sequence data. The application of discrete optimization techniques, such as mixed-integer programming (MIP), remains largely unexplored and has the potential to transform the field. This paper reports on the successful use of MIP to optimize experimental design in a practical genetics application. More generally, our results illustrate the potential benefits of using MIP for subset selection problems in genetics.