06/01/1999 09:00 AM
Computer Science
We introduce a new method of functionally classifying genes using gene expression data from DNA microarray hybridization experiments. The method is based on the theory of support vector machines (SVMs). We describe SVMs that use different similarity metrics including a simple dot product of gene expression vectors, polynomial versions of the dot product, and a radial basis function. Compared to the other SVM similarity metrics, the radial basis function SVM appears to provide superior performance in identifying sets of genes with a common function using expression data. In addition, SVM performance is compared to four standard machine learning algorithms. SVMs have many features that make them attractive for gene expression analysis, including their flexibility in choosing a similarity function, sparseness of solution when dealing with large data sets, the ability to handle large feature spaces, and the ability to identify outliers.
