The DAVID Gene Functional Classification Tool: a novel biological module-centric algorithm to functionally analyze large gene lists

Da Wei Huang^*¹ , Brad T Sherman^*¹ , Qina Tan¹ , Jack R Collins² , W Gregory Alvord³ , Jean Roayaei³ , Robert Stephens² , Michael W Baseler⁴ , H Clifford Lane⁵ and Richard A Lempicki¹

¹Laboratory of Immunopathogenesis and Bioinformatics, Clinical Services Program, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA

²Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA

³Computer and Statistical Services, Data Management Services, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA

⁴Clinical Services Program, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA

⁵Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Genome Biology 2007, 8:R183doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-9-r183


Published:	4 September 2007

Subject areas: Bioinformatics, Genome studies

Abstract

The DAVID Gene Functional Classification Tool http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov webcite uses a novel agglomeration algorithm to condense a list of genes or associated biological terms into organized classes of related genes or biology, called biological modules. This organization is accomplished by mining the complex biological co-occurrences found in multiple sources of functional annotation. It is a powerful method to group functionally related genes and terms into a manageable number of biological modules for efficient interpretation of gene lists in a network context.