Background: Connectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel
pharmacological and toxicological properties in small molecules by comparing
their gene expression signatures with others in a database. A simple and robust
method for connectivity mapping with increased specificity and sensitivity was
recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentally derived
gene signatures.
  Results: This paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections'
map), a Java application designed to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using
the recently published method. The software is bundled with a default
collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on the publicly
available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes
data from over 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule
compounds, and 6100 treatment instances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the
application allows users to add their custom collections of reference profiles
and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies.
  Conclusions: The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make
statistically significant connections between a user-supplied gene signature
and the 6100 core reference profiles based on the Broad Institute expanded
dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved method to
custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future
referencing. The software can be freely downloaded from
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMapComment: 3 pages, 1 table, 1 eps figur

B Efron

J Frasor

J Lamb

JJ Chen

KB Glaser

L Tian

PA Horwitz

SD Zhang

Shu-Dong Zhang

Timothy W Gant

English

arXiv

Springer - Publisher Connector

BioMed CentralBMC Bioinformatics
ssOpen AcceSoftware
sscMap: An extensible Java application for connecting 
small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures
Shu-Dong Zhang*1,2 and Timothy W Gant*1
Address: 1MRC Toxicology Unit, Hodgkin Building, Lancaster Road, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK and 2Centre for Cancer Research and Cell 
Biology (CCRCB), Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
Email: Shu-Dong Zhang* - sdz1@le.ac.uk; Timothy W Gant* - twg1@le.ac.uk
* Corresponding authors    
Abstract
Background: Connectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel pharmacological and
toxicological properties in small molecules by comparing their gene expression signatures with
others in a database. A simple and robust method for connectivity mapping with increased
specificity and sensitivity was recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentally
derived gene signatures.
Results: This paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections' map), a Java application
designed to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using the recently published method. The
software is bundled with a default collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on the
publicly available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes data from
over 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule compounds, and 6100 treatment
instances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the application allows users to add their custom
collections of reference profiles and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies.
Conclusion: The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make statistically significant
connections between a user-supplied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles based on
the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved method
to custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future referencing. The
software can be freely downloaded from http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMap.
Background
Interaction of a drug or chemical with a biological system
can result in a gene-expression profile or signature charac-
teristic of the event. Lamb et al were the first to propose
using these data in connectivity mapping to make connec-
tions between the pharmacological and toxicological
properties of small molecules [1]. The three key compo-
nents in the working of a connectivity map are: 1) a col-
lection of pre-built reference gene-expression profiles that
serves as a core database; 2) a query gene signature, usu-
ally prepared by the user, which best characterizes a com-
pound-induced biological state and; 3) a similarity metric
to quantify the connection between a gene signature and
a reference profile. In a previous publication [2] we pre-
sented a simple and robust method for connecting small-
molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures, the util-
ity of which was shown using three experimentally
derived gene signatures from independent studies for
HDAC inhibitors [3], estrogen [4], and immunosuppres-
sive drugs [5], respectively. Here in this paper we describe
Published: 31 July 2009
BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-236
Received: 22 April 2009
Accepted: 31 July 2009
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236
© 2009 Zhang and Gant; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 4
(page number not for citation purposes)
BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236sscMap, a Java application that implements the method,
and we focus on its utility and extensibility from a user's
perspective.
Implementation
The software was built using Java programming language
(Java Platform, Standard Edition 6). JFC/Swing classes
were used to provide a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of
the program. In designing the software, user extensibility
was considered to be an important feature. To this end
each individual reference profile is stored as a separate file
on the disk. This setting greatly enhances flexibility and
extensibility of the software, as it allows users to supple-
ment the default collection of reference profiles, or to
build custom collection of reference profiles by following
a simple contract specified in the README file [see Addi-
tional file 1]. In the execution of the program, a set of ref-
erence profiles are first loaded to memory and compared
to all the query gene signatures to calculate the related
connection scores and p-values, the memory is then
released and the program proceeds to load another set of
reference profiles from disk. This memory management
scheme enables the program to handle an anticipated
increasing number of reference profiles at a moderate cost
of speed. If all the available reference profiles were resid-
ing in memory, the number of reference profiles allowed
would soon be limited.
Results
The core database
The Broad Institute released Build 02 of their Connectivity
Map http://www.broad.mit.edu/cmap/ with an expanded
dataset over the 01 version with more compounds uti-
lized. Using these data we constructed 6100 reference
gene-expression profiles using the method described in
our previous report [2]. In brief the genes were primarily
sorted by the absolute value of log-ratios in descending
order, so that the most differentially expressed gene has
the highest rank. Thus sscMap comes with a default core
database of 6100 reference profiles, each characterizes a
treatment instance as described in [1]. This core database
covers the treatment instances of over 1000 small-mole-
cule compounds applied to 5 human cell lines. So the pri-
mary utility of sscMap is for users who want to compare
their gene signatures to the reference profiles based on the
Connectivity Map 02 dataset. The benefits of the method
implemented in this application include a more princi-
pled statistical procedure [6-8], effective safeguards
against false connections, and an increased sensitivity.
The sscMap program can be run in two execution modes:
as a command line program, or as a GUI (Graphical User
Interface) application. In the simple command line mode
using the built-in core database users can simply put their
gene signature files into the queries folder and run the
application. Detailed instructions and guided tours on
how to run the program in GUI mode can be found in the
accompanying README file [see Additional file 1]. For
more advanced application the database can be added to
at the users discretion as described below.
Extensibility: Building custom extensions
Users who want a greater capacity for comparison than the
built-in database can build up their own custom reference
profiles and apply the same scoring scheme and statistical
testing procedures introduced in [2]. This section briefly
describes how users can customize the application.
A plain text file, parameters.ini for the command line
mode, or for-gui/default-parameters.ini for the GUI mode,
sets the key parameters used by the program, e.g., where
to find the ref-files (reference gene-expression profiles). In
the default settings, we specified reffiles as the default
folder, where the 6100 reference profiles are stored. It is
possible to supplement them by simply putting more sim-
ilarly built ref-files into the default folder. Users can also
create a new directory, for example, custom-reffiles, and put
all the custom ref-files there, and then point the reference
profiles folder to that directory, either by editing the
parameters.ini file for the command line, or by browsing to
the custom directory in the GUI mode. As an example, we
have included with sscMap a folder custom-example, which
contains all the key components of a customized exten-
sion to the application. Following the example provided
users should be able to build their own extension. A more
detailed description of the general contracts for adding a
custom collection of reference profiles to sscMap can be
found in the README file [see Additional file 1] accom-
panying the software.
Flexibility: Treatment set definition
The sscMap software downloads with a default ref-files
folder containing 6100 pre-built reference expression pro-
files. An example ref-file is azathioprine_0.1
mM_MCF7_338.ref.tab, which characterizes the biological
state of MCF7 cells treated with 0.1 mM azathioprine. The
name of a typical ref-file is divided by the underscore char-
acter _, the default field separator, into 4 fields: drug
name, dose, cell type, and instance ID, respectively. The
program allows users to specify which field(s) to use for
defining a "treatment set" (A term we use interchangeably
with "reference set", or simply ref-set elsewhere). Our pre-
ferred choice for the default ref-files is to use the 3 fields:
drug name (field 0), dose (field 1), and cell type (field 2)
together to define a treatment set, meaning that only ref-
erence profiles with the same drug, same dose, and same
cell type should be regarded as forming a set in the set-
level analysis. The original Connectivity Map uses only
the drug name to define a treatment set, disregarding pos-
sible difference in dose and cell type. This tends to average
out the distinct characteristics attributable to the cell typePage 2 of 4
(page number not for citation purposes)
BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236or dose difference, making some set-level connections
insignificant or their interpretation difficult. We described
in the discussion section of [2] why it was preferable to
use 3 fields to define a treatment set. However, the pro-
gram does not force users to follow this preference. With
sscMap, users can choose whatever field(s) they feel
appropriate to define a set. One extreme case is to use all
the fields of a ref-file name, and consequently each treat-
ment set will have only one treatment instance (such a
treatment set is called a singleton set) and this reduces to
the instance-level analysis.
In the custom-example folder, the custom ref-files names
are divided by a custom filed separator, --, ie, two hyphen
characters, into 4 fields: drug name, dose, tissue type, and
time point, as in Drug2––LowDose––Tissue3––
Day11.ref.tab. Treatment sets are defined using two fields,
Drug name (field 0) and Tissue type (field 2) in this case.
Thus the example here demonstrates the flexibility offered
by the application: users have the freedom to choose their
own field separator, the number of fields, and which
fields to define a treatment set.
Example 1: Using the default core collection of ref-files
As an example of querying the default core database, we
used the five gene signatures previously reported in [2].
Note that this default core database contains 6100 refer-
ence gene-expression profiles, which is a much-expanded
collection as compared to 453 in [2]. The connection
scores and p-values for the Estrogen gene signature are
shown here in Figure 1 in graphical view. The detailed tab-
ulated results can be found as a tab file (Estrogen.sig.ssc-
map.tab) in the results folder within the downloaded
software.
Example 2: Using a custom collection of ref-files
In the folder custom-example we provided a small collec-
tion of 18 custom reference profiles, constructed using
Affymetrix RAT230_2 microarray data. We then queried
this small database of custom reference profiles using 2
specially prepared gene signatures based on mouse cDNA
microarray data. To query the rat reference profiles using
mouse gene signatures, we first converted the gene IDs on
the mouse array to the Affymetrix Rat230_2 probeset IDs,
using the annotation file provided by Affymetrix. The bio-
logical contexts of these reference profiles and gene signa-
tures in this example are not directly relevant, as we are
Results for the Estrogen gene signatureFig re 1
Results for the Estrogen gene signature. A screenshot of the sscMap program displaying the volcano plot for the Estro-
gen gene signature. The x-axis is for the standardized connection score, while the y-axis is for -log10 p. The green horizontal 
line is for the pre-set threshold p-value. Any data points above that line are considered as statistically significant. In the example 
shown in this figure, the threshold p-value was set as 1/N = 1/3738.Page 3 of 4
(page number not for citation purposes)
BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236here simply demonstrating the possibility of extending
the sscMap software with custom reference profiles. In
Table 1, we list all the connections of the 6 reference sets,
each containing 3 individual reference profiles, to one of
the mouse gene signatures.
Conclusion
The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make
statistically significant connections between a user-sup-
plied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles
based on the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it
allows users to apply the scoring scheme and statistical
procedures described in [2] to custom-built reference pro-
files which can be added to the database for future refer-
encing.
Availability and requirements
Project name: sscMap
Project home page: http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMap
Operating system(s): Platform independent
Programming language: Java
Other requirements: Java Runtime Environment 1.6 or
later version is required to run the program.
License: None required for research and academic use
Any restrictions to use by non-academics: For commercial
use, please contact the authors
Authors' contributions
SDZ and TWG designed the study. SDZ developed the
algorithm, implemented the method, and analyzed the
data. SDZ and TWG wrote the paper. All authors read and
approved the final manuscript.
Authors' information
SDZ's email address at Queen's University Belfast is
s.zhang@qub.ac.uk
Additional material
Acknowledgements
We thank the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. 
Financial support for this project was provided by the Medical Research 
Council UK (MRC) and the work carried out with the support of all mem-
bers of the Systems Toxicology Group of the MRC Toxicology Unit. SDZ 
thanks Qing Wen for helpful discussions on a searching algorithm in the 
implementation of the application.
References
1. Lamb J, Crawford ED, Peck D, Modell JW, Blat IC, Wrobel MJ, Lerner
J, Brunet JP, Subramanian A, Ross KN, Reich M, Hieronymus H, Wei
G, Armstrong SA, Haggarty SJ, Clemons PA, Wei R, Carr SA, Lander
ES, Golub TR: The Connectivity Map: Using Gene-Expression
Signatures to Connect Small Molecules, Genes, and Disease.
Science 2006, 313(5795):1929-1935.
2. Zhang SD, Gant TW: A simple and robust method for connect-
ing small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures.
BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9(258):.
3. Glaser KB, Staver MJ, Waring JF, Stender J, Ulrich RG, Davidsen SK:
Gene Expression Profiling of Multiple Histone Deacetylase
(HDAC) Inhibitors: Defining a Common Gene Set Produced
by HDAC Inhibition in T24 and MDA Carcinoma Cell Lines.
Mol Cancer Ther 2003, 2(2):151-163.
4. Frasor J, Stossi F, Danes JM, Komm B, Lyttle CR, Katzenellenbogen
BS: Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators: Discrimination
of Agonistic versus Antagonistic Activities by Gene Expres-
sion Profiling in Breast Cancer Cells.  Cancer Res 2004,
64(4):1522-1533.
5. Horwitz PA, Tsai EJ, Putt ME, Gilmore JM, Lepore JJ, Parmacek MS,
Kao AC, Desai SS, Goldberg LR, Brozena SC, Jessup ML, Epstein JA,
Cappola TP: Detection of Cardiac Allograft Rejection and
Response to Immunosuppressive Therapy With Peripheral
Blood Gene Expression.  Circulation 2004, 110(25):3815-3821.
6. Tian L, Greenberg SA, Kong SW, Altschuler J, Kohane IS, Park PJ: Dis-
covering statistically significant pathways in expression pro-
filing studies.  PNAS 2005, 102(38):13544-13549.
7. Efron B, Tibshirani R: On testing the significance of sets of
genes.  Ann Appl Statist 2007, 1:107-129.
8. Chen JJ, Lee T, Delongchamp RR, Chen T, Tsai CA: Significance
analysis of groups of genes in expression profiling studies.
Bioinformatics 2007, 23(16):2104-2112.
Additional File 1
readme. The README file of the software, which provides detailed 
instructions and guided tours for running the program.
Click here for file
[http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/supplementary/1471-
2105-10-236-S1.pdf]
Table 1: The connections of the rat reference profiles with a mouse gene signature
ref-set set size set score set pvalue stdev of rdscores setscore/stdev
Drug2–Tissue2 3 0.0036 0.9716 0.0908 0.0394
Drug1–Tissue1 3 0.1553 0.0468 0.0790 1.9651
Drug1–Tissue2 3 0.0167 0.8638 0.0983 0.1694
Drug1–Tissue3 3 0.0221 0.7816 0.0799 0.2767
Drug2–Tissue1 3 -0.1934 0.0574 0.1020 -1.8953
Drug2–Tissue3 3 0.0648 0.3674 0.0709 0.9143Page 4 of 4
(page number not for citation purposes)


sscMap: An extensible Java application for connecting small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures

Zhang, Shu-Dong

Gant, Timothy W

Ulster University's Research Portal

BioMed CentralBMC BioinformaticsssOpen AcceSoftwaresscMap: An extensible Java application for connecting small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signaturesShu-Dong Zhang*1,2 and Timothy W Gant*1Address: 1MRC Toxicology Unit, Hodgkin Building, Lancaster Road, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK and 2Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB), Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UKEmail: Shu-Dong Zhang* - sdz1@le.ac.uk; Timothy W Gant* - twg1@le.ac.uk* Corresponding authors    AbstractBackground: Connectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel pharmacological andtoxicological properties in small molecules by comparing their gene expression signatures withothers in a database. A simple and robust method for connectivity mapping with increasedspecificity and sensitivity was recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentallyderived gene signatures.Results: This paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections' map), a Java applicationdesigned to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using the recently published method. Thesoftware is bundled with a default collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on thepublicly available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes data fromover 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule compounds, and 6100 treatmentinstances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the application allows users to add their customcollections of reference profiles and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies.Conclusion: The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make statistically significantconnections between a user-supplied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles based onthe Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved methodto custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future referencing. Thesoftware can be freely downloaded from http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMap.BackgroundInteraction of a drug or chemical with a biological systemcan result in a gene-expression profile or signature charac-teristic of the event. Lamb et al were the first to proposeusing these data in connectivity mapping to make connec-tions between the pharmacological and toxicologicalproperties of small molecules [1]. The three key compo-nents in the working of a connectivity map are: 1) a col-lection of pre-built reference gene-expression profiles thatserves as a core database; 2) a query gene signature, usu-ally prepared by the user, which best characterizes a com-pound-induced biological state and; 3) a similarity metricto quantify the connection between a gene signature anda reference profile. In a previous publication [2] we pre-sented a simple and robust method for connecting small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures, the util-ity of which was shown using three experimentallyderived gene signatures from independent studies forHDAC inhibitors [3], estrogen [4], and immunosuppres-sive drugs [5], respectively. Here in this paper we describePublished: 31 July 2009BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-236Received: 22 April 2009Accepted: 31 July 2009This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236© 2009 Zhang and Gant; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 4(page number not for citation purposes)BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236sscMap, a Java application that implements the method,and we focus on its utility and extensibility from a user'sperspective.ImplementationThe software was built using Java programming language(Java Platform, Standard Edition 6). JFC/Swing classeswere used to provide a Graphical User Interface (GUI) ofthe program. In designing the software, user extensibilitywas considered to be an important feature. To this endeach individual reference profile is stored as a separate fileon the disk. This setting greatly enhances flexibility andextensibility of the software, as it allows users to supple-ment the default collection of reference profiles, or tobuild custom collection of reference profiles by followinga simple contract specified in the README file [see Addi-tional file 1]. In the execution of the program, a set of ref-erence profiles are first loaded to memory and comparedto all the query gene signatures to calculate the relatedconnection scores and p-values, the memory is thenreleased and the program proceeds to load another set ofreference profiles from disk. This memory managementscheme enables the program to handle an anticipatedincreasing number of reference profiles at a moderate costof speed. If all the available reference profiles were resid-ing in memory, the number of reference profiles allowedwould soon be limited.ResultsThe core databaseThe Broad Institute released Build 02 of their ConnectivityMap http://www.broad.mit.edu/cmap/ with an expandeddataset over the 01 version with more compounds uti-lized. Using these data we constructed 6100 referencegene-expression profiles using the method described inour previous report [2]. In brief the genes were primarilysorted by the absolute value of log-ratios in descendingorder, so that the most differentially expressed gene hasthe highest rank. Thus sscMap comes with a default coredatabase of 6100 reference profiles, each characterizes atreatment instance as described in [1]. This core databasecovers the treatment instances of over 1000 small-mole-cule compounds applied to 5 human cell lines. So the pri-mary utility of sscMap is for users who want to comparetheir gene signatures to the reference profiles based on theConnectivity Map 02 dataset. The benefits of the methodimplemented in this application include a more princi-pled statistical procedure [6-8], effective safeguardsagainst false connections, and an increased sensitivity.The sscMap program can be run in two execution modes:as a command line program, or as a GUI (Graphical UserInterface) application. In the simple command line modeusing the built-in core database users can simply put theirgene signature files into the queries folder and run theapplication. Detailed instructions and guided tours onhow to run the program in GUI mode can be found in theaccompanying README file [see Additional file 1]. Formore advanced application the database can be added toat the users discretion as described below.Extensibility: Building custom extensionsUsers who want a greater capacity for comparison than thebuilt-in database can build up their own custom referenceprofiles and apply the same scoring scheme and statisticaltesting procedures introduced in [2]. This section brieflydescribes how users can customize the application.A plain text file, parameters.ini for the command linemode, or for-gui/default-parameters.ini for the GUI mode,sets the key parameters used by the program, e.g., whereto find the ref-files (reference gene-expression profiles). Inthe default settings, we specified reffiles as the defaultfolder, where the 6100 reference profiles are stored. It ispossible to supplement them by simply putting more sim-ilarly built ref-files into the default folder. Users can alsocreate a new directory, for example, custom-reffiles, and putall the custom ref-files there, and then point the referenceprofiles folder to that directory, either by editing theparameters.ini file for the command line, or by browsing tothe custom directory in the GUI mode. As an example, wehave included with sscMap a folder custom-example, whichcontains all the key components of a customized exten-sion to the application. Following the example providedusers should be able to build their own extension. A moredetailed description of the general contracts for adding acustom collection of reference profiles to sscMap can befound in the README file [see Additional file 1] accom-panying the software.Flexibility: Treatment set definitionThe sscMap software downloads with a default ref-filesfolder containing 6100 pre-built reference expression pro-files. An example ref-file is azathioprine_0.1mM_MCF7_338.ref.tab, which characterizes the biologicalstate of MCF7 cells treated with 0.1 mM azathioprine. Thename of a typical ref-file is divided by the underscore char-acter _, the default field separator, into 4 fields: drugname, dose, cell type, and instance ID, respectively. Theprogram allows users to specify which field(s) to use fordefining a "treatment set" (A term we use interchangeablywith "reference set", or simply ref-set elsewhere). Our pre-ferred choice for the default ref-files is to use the 3 fields:drug name (field 0), dose (field 1), and cell type (field 2)together to define a treatment set, meaning that only ref-erence profiles with the same drug, same dose, and samecell type should be regarded as forming a set in the set-level analysis. The original Connectivity Map uses onlythe drug name to define a treatment set, disregarding pos-sible difference in dose and cell type. This tends to averageout the distinct characteristics attributable to the cell typePage 2 of 4(page number not for citation purposes)BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236or dose difference, making some set-level connectionsinsignificant or their interpretation difficult. We describedin the discussion section of [2] why it was preferable touse 3 fields to define a treatment set. However, the pro-gram does not force users to follow this preference. WithsscMap, users can choose whatever field(s) they feelappropriate to define a set. One extreme case is to use allthe fields of a ref-file name, and consequently each treat-ment set will have only one treatment instance (such atreatment set is called a singleton set) and this reduces tothe instance-level analysis.In the custom-example folder, the custom ref-files namesare divided by a custom filed separator, --, ie, two hyphencharacters, into 4 fields: drug name, dose, tissue type, andtime point, as in Drug2––LowDose––Tissue3––Day11.ref.tab. Treatment sets are defined using two fields,Drug name (field 0) and Tissue type (field 2) in this case.Thus the example here demonstrates the flexibility offeredby the application: users have the freedom to choose theirown field separator, the number of fields, and whichfields to define a treatment set.Example 1: Using the default core collection of ref-filesAs an example of querying the default core database, weused the five gene signatures previously reported in [2].Note that this default core database contains 6100 refer-ence gene-expression profiles, which is a much-expandedcollection as compared to 453 in [2]. The connectionscores and p-values for the Estrogen gene signature areshown here in Figure 1 in graphical view. The detailed tab-ulated results can be found as a tab file (Estrogen.sig.ssc-map.tab) in the results folder within the downloadedsoftware.Example 2: Using a custom collection of ref-filesIn the folder custom-example we provided a small collec-tion of 18 custom reference profiles, constructed usingAffymetrix RAT230_2 microarray data. We then queriedthis small database of custom reference profiles using 2specially prepared gene signatures based on mouse cDNAmicroarray data. To query the rat reference profiles usingmouse gene signatures, we first converted the gene IDs onthe mouse array to the Affymetrix Rat230_2 probeset IDs,using the annotation file provided by Affymetrix. The bio-logical contexts of these reference profiles and gene signa-tures in this example are not directly relevant, as we areResults for the Estrogen gene signatureFig re 1Results for the Estrogen gene signature. A screenshot of the sscMap program displaying the volcano plot for the Estro-gen gene signature. The x-axis is for the standardized connection score, while the y-axis is for -log10 p. The green horizontal line is for the pre-set threshold p-value. Any data points above that line are considered as statistically significant. In the example shown in this figure, the threshold p-value was set as 1/N = 1/3738.Page 3 of 4(page number not for citation purposes)BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:236 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/236here simply demonstrating the possibility of extendingthe sscMap software with custom reference profiles. InTable 1, we list all the connections of the 6 reference sets,each containing 3 individual reference profiles, to one ofthe mouse gene signatures.ConclusionThe utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to makestatistically significant connections between a user-sup-plied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profilesbased on the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, itallows users to apply the scoring scheme and statisticalprocedures described in [2] to custom-built reference pro-files which can be added to the database for future refer-encing.Availability and requirementsProject name: sscMapProject home page: http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMapOperating system(s): Platform independentProgramming language: JavaOther requirements: Java Runtime Environment 1.6 orlater version is required to run the program.License: None required for research and academic useAny restrictions to use by non-academics: For commercialuse, please contact the authorsAuthors' contributionsSDZ and TWG designed the study. SDZ developed thealgorithm, implemented the method, and analyzed thedata. SDZ and TWG wrote the paper. All authors read andapproved the final manuscript.Authors' informationSDZ's email address at Queen's University Belfast iss.zhang@qub.ac.ukAdditional materialAcknowledgementsWe thank the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. Financial support for this project was provided by the Medical Research Council UK (MRC) and the work carried out with the support of all mem-bers of the Systems Toxicology Group of the MRC Toxicology Unit. SDZ thanks Qing Wen for helpful discussions on a searching algorithm in the implementation of the application.References1. Lamb J, Crawford ED, Peck D, Modell JW, Blat IC, Wrobel MJ, LernerJ, Brunet JP, Subramanian A, Ross KN, Reich M, Hieronymus H, WeiG, Armstrong SA, Haggarty SJ, Clemons PA, Wei R, Carr SA, LanderES, Golub TR: The Connectivity Map: Using Gene-ExpressionSignatures to Connect Small Molecules, Genes, and Disease.Science 2006, 313(5795):1929-1935.2. Zhang SD, Gant TW: A simple and robust method for connect-ing small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures.BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9(258):.3. Glaser KB, Staver MJ, Waring JF, Stender J, Ulrich RG, Davidsen SK:Gene Expression Profiling of Multiple Histone Deacetylase(HDAC) Inhibitors: Defining a Common Gene Set Producedby HDAC Inhibition in T24 and MDA Carcinoma Cell Lines.Mol Cancer Ther 2003, 2(2):151-163.4. Frasor J, Stossi F, Danes JM, Komm B, Lyttle CR, KatzenellenbogenBS: Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators: Discriminationof Agonistic versus Antagonistic Activities by Gene Expres-sion Profiling in Breast Cancer Cells.  Cancer Res 2004,64(4):1522-1533.5. Horwitz PA, Tsai EJ, Putt ME, Gilmore JM, Lepore JJ, Parmacek MS,Kao AC, Desai SS, Goldberg LR, Brozena SC, Jessup ML, Epstein JA,Cappola TP: Detection of Cardiac Allograft Rejection andResponse to Immunosuppressive Therapy With PeripheralBlood Gene Expression.  Circulation 2004, 110(25):3815-3821.6. Tian L, Greenberg SA, Kong SW, Altschuler J, Kohane IS, Park PJ: Dis-covering statistically significant pathways in expression pro-filing studies.  PNAS 2005, 102(38):13544-13549.7. Efron B, Tibshirani R: On testing the significance of sets ofgenes.  Ann Appl Statist 2007, 1:107-129.8. Chen JJ, Lee T, Delongchamp RR, Chen T, Tsai CA: Significanceanalysis of groups of genes in expression profiling studies.Bioinformatics 2007, 23(16):2104-2112.Additional File 1readme. The README file of the software, which provides detailed instructions and guided tours for running the program.Click here for file[http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/supplementary/1471-2105-10-236-S1.pdf]Table 1: The connections of the rat reference profiles with a mouse gene signatureref-set set size set score set pvalue stdev of rdscores setscore/stdevDrug2–Tissue2 3 0.0036 0.9716 0.0908 0.0394Drug1–Tissue1 3 0.1553 0.0468 0.0790 1.9651Drug1–Tissue2 3 0.0167 0.8638 0.0983 0.1694Drug1–Tissue3 3 0.0221 0.7816 0.0799 0.2767Drug2–Tissue1 3 -0.1934 0.0574 0.1020 -1.8953Drug2–Tissue3 3 0.0648 0.3674 0.0709 0.9143Page 4 of 4(page number not for citation purposes)

Abstract Background Connectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel pharmacological and toxicological properties in small molecules by comparing their gene expression signatures with others in a database. A simple and robust method for connectivity mapping with increased specificity and sensitivity was recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentally derived gene signatures. Results This paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections' map), a Java application designed to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using the recently published method. The software is bundled with a default collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on the publicly available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes data from over 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule compounds, and 6100 treatment instances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the application allows users to add their custom collections of reference profiles and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies. Conclusion The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make statistically significant connections between a user-supplied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles based on the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved method to custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future referencing. The software can be freely downloaded from http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMap.</p

Zhang Shu-Dong

Gant Timothy W

Directory of Open Access Journals

BMC Bioinformatics

Background:Connectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel pharmacological and toxicological properties in small molecules by comparing their gene expression signatures with others in a database. A simple and robust method for connectivity mapping with increased specificity and sensitivity was recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentally derived gene signatures.
Results:This paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections' map), a Java application designed to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using the recently published method. The software is bundled with a default collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on the publicly available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes data from over 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule compounds, and 6100 treatment instances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the application allows users to add their custom collections of reference profiles and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies.
Conclusion:The utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make statistically significant connections between a user-supplied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles based on the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved method to custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future referencing. The software can be freely downloaded from http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMap webcite

Shu-Dong Zhang (231229)

Timothy W. Gant (27460)

Leicester Research Archive

Crossref

BackgroundConnectivity mapping is a process to recognize novel pharmacological and toxicological properties in small molecules by comparing their gene expression signatures with others in a database. A simple and robust method for connectivity mapping with increased specificity and sensitivity was recently developed, and its utility demonstrated using experimentally derived gene signatures.ResultsThis paper introduces sscMap (statistically significant connections' map), a Java application designed to undertake connectivity mapping tasks using the recently published method. The software is bundled with a default collection of reference gene-expression profiles based on the publicly available dataset from the Broad Institute Connectivity Map 02, which includes data from over 7000 Affymetrix microarrays, for over 1000 small-molecule compounds, and 6100 treatment instances in 5 human cell lines. In addition, the application allows users to add their custom collections of reference profiles and is applicable to a wide range of other 'omics technologies.ConclusionThe utility of sscMap is two fold. First, it serves to make statistically significant connections between a user-supplied gene signature and the 6100 core reference profiles based on the Broad Institute expanded dataset. Second, it allows users to apply the same improved method to custom-built reference profiles which can be added to the database for future referencing. The software can be freely downloaded from http://purl.oclc.org/NET/sscMa

Gant, T.W.

Queen's University Belfast Research Portal

BS: Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators: Discrimination of Agonistic versus Antagonistic Activities by Gene Expression Profiling in Breast Cancer Cells. Cancer Res

CA: Significance analysis of groups of genes in expression profiling studies. Bioinformatics

Cappola TP: Detection of Cardiac Allograft Rejection and Response to Immunosuppressive Therapy With Peripheral Blood Gene Expression. Circulation

On testing the significance of sets of genes. Ann Appl Statist

PJ: Discovering statistically significant pathways in expression profiling studies. PNAS

SK: Gene Expression Profiling of Multiple Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Inhibitors: Defining a Common Gene Set Produced by HDAC Inhibition in T24 and MDA Carcinoma Cell Lines. Mol Cancer Ther

TR: The Connectivity Map: Using Gene-Expression Signatures to Connect Small Molecules, Genes, and Disease. Science

TW: A simple and robust method for connecting small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures.

https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/ws/files/11529361/2009-BMC-sscMap1471-2105-10-236.pdf

sscMap: An extensible Java application for connecting small-molecule
  drugs using gene-expression signatures

sscMap: An extensible Java application for connecting small-molecule drugs using gene-expression signatures

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