Fundamentals of cDNA microarray data analysis

Microarray technology is a powerful approach for genomics research. The multi-step, data-intensive nature of this technology has created an unprecedented informatics and analytical challenge. It is important to understand the crucial steps that can affect the outcome of the analysis. In this review, we provide an overview of the contemporary trend on various main analysis steps in the microarray data analysis process, which includes experimental design, data standardization, image acquisition and analysis, normalization, statistical significance inference, exploratory data analysis, class prediction and pathway analysis, as well as various considerations relevant to their implementation.