Emre Guney1, Javier Garcia-Garcia1, Baldo Oliva1. 1. Departament de Ciencies Experimentals i de la Salut, Structural Bioinformatics Group (GRIB-IMIM), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, 08003 Catalonia, Spain.
Abstract
SUMMARY: Determining genetic factors underlying various phenotypes is hindered by the involvement of multiple genes acting cooperatively. Over the past years, disease-gene prioritization has been central to identify genes implicated in human disorders. Special attention has been paid on using physical interactions between the proteins encoded by the genes to link them with diseases. Such methods exploit the guilt-by-association principle in the protein interaction network to uncover novel disease-gene associations. These methods rely on the proximity of a gene in the network to the genes associated with a phenotype and require a set of initial associations. Here, we present GUILDify, an easy-to-use web server for the phenotypic characterization of genes. GUILDify offers a prioritization approach based on the protein-protein interaction network where the initial phenotype-gene associations are retrieved via free text search on biological databases. GUILDify web server does not restrict the prioritization to any predefined phenotype, supports multiple species and accepts user-specified genes. It also prioritizes drugs based on the ranking of their targets, unleashing opportunities for repurposing drugs for novel therapies. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Available online at http://sbi.imim.es/GUILDify.php
SUMMARY: Determining genetic factors underlying various phenotypes is hindered by the involvement of multiple genes acting cooperatively. Over the past years, disease-gene prioritization has been central to identify genes implicated in human disorders. Special attention has been paid on using physical interactions between the proteins encoded by the genes to link them with diseases. Such methods exploit the guilt-by-association principle in the protein interaction network to uncover novel disease-gene associations. These methods rely on the proximity of a gene in the network to the genes associated with a phenotype and require a set of initial associations. Here, we present GUILDify, an easy-to-use web server for the phenotypic characterization of genes. GUILDify offers a prioritization approach based on the protein-protein interaction network where the initial phenotype-gene associations are retrieved via free text search on biological databases. GUILDify web server does not restrict the prioritization to any predefined phenotype, supports multiple species and accepts user-specified genes. It also prioritizes drugs based on the ranking of their targets, unleashing opportunities for repurposing drugs for novel therapies. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Available online at http://sbi.imim.es/GUILDify.php
Authors: Antonio Martínez-Aranda; Vanessa Hernández; Emre Guney; Laia Muixí; Ruben Foj; Núria Baixeras; Daniel Cuadras; Víctor Moreno; Ander Urruticoechea; Miguel Gil; Baldo Oliva; Ferran Moreno; Eva González-Suarez; Noemí Vidal; Xavier Andreu; Miquel A Seguí; Rosa Ballester; Eva Castella; Angels Sierra Journal: Oncotarget Date: 2015-12-29