I’ve been working on some RNAi projects and part of that involved generating descriptors for sequences. It turns out that the Biostrings package is very handy and high performance. So, our database contains a catalog for an siRNA library with ~ 27,000 target DNA sequences. To get at the siRNA sequence, we need to convert […]
RNAi in PubChem
While considering ways to disseminate RNAi screening data, I found out that PubChem now contains two RNAi screening datasets – AIDs 1622 and 1904. These screens reuse the PubChem bioaassay formats – which is both good and bad. For example, while there are a few standardized columns (such as PUBCHEM_ACTIVITY_SCORE), the bulk of the user […]
When is a Bad Plate Bad?
When running a high-throughput screen, one usually deals with hundreds or even thousands of plates. Due to the vagaries of experiments, some plates will not be ervy good. That is, the data will be of poor quality due to a variety of reasons. Usually we can evaluate various statistical quality metrics to asses which plates […]
Another Conference Done
The CHI RNAi conference is over and will now head back home. Being new to the field of RNAi screening, I’ve been looking for a place (virtual or real) where I can meet other people, especially those working in large scale screening facilities. Reading the literature is certainly useful, but face to face interactions are […]
Hit Selection Methods for RNAi Screens
Over the last few weeks I’ve been getting up to speed on RNAi screening (see Lord et al for a nice overview) and one of the key features in this approach is to reliably select hits for followup. In many ways it is similar to hit selection in small molecule HTS but also employs techniques […]