Computer systems and methods for hierarchical cluster analysis of large sets of biological data including highly dense gene array data

摘要

A system and corresponding method analyzes biological data for sets of test subjects such as gene arrays of group test subjects into clusters and order the clusters into a hierarchy based on similarities and differences of biological data corresponding to the test subjects. A combination of nonhierarchical clustering and hierarchical clustering methods is used to efficiently and effectively perform hierarchical clustering of such biological data as highly dense gene arrays containing many thousand test subjects such as genes. First the test subjects are nonhierarchically clustered according to similarities and differences of their biological data as determined by distance techniques. Representative values, such as mean values, of the biological data are determined for each nonhierarchical cluster of test subjects. These representative values are then used to hierarchically cluster the nonhierarchical clusters. Biological data for each test subject is displayed in a row of a table. The rows of the table are arranged by the nonhierarchical clustering and further by the hierarchical clustering. Each value of the biological data is color coded according to its value to display patterns in the hierarchically clustered biological data.