Software
MethMarker: user-friendly design and optimization of gene-specific DNA methylation assays
1 Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, Campus E1.4, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
2 Molecular Pathology Research and Development Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, Victoria 8006, Australia
3 Department of Neuropathology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Sigmund-Freud-Straße, 53105 Bonn, Germany
Genome Biology 2009, 10:R105 doi:10.1186/gb-2009-10-10-r105
Published: 5 October 2009Abstract
DNA methylation is a key mechanism of epigenetic regulation that is frequently altered in diseases such as cancer. To confirm the biological or clinical relevance of such changes, gene-specific DNA methylation changes need to be validated in multiple samples. We have developed the MethMarker http://methmarker.mpi-inf.mpg.de/ webcite software to help design robust and cost-efficient DNA methylation assays for six widely used methods. Furthermore, MethMarker implements a bioinformatic workflow for transforming disease-specific differentially methylated genomic regions into robust clinical biomarkers.
