Patent ID: 7966130

Claim:
A method for determining a weighted mean intensity in an expression level of a cellular constituent in a biological system, said method comprising: (A) computing, by a suitably programmed computer, said weighted mean intensity according to the formula: x = ∑ ⁢ ( x i / σ i 2 ) ∑ ⁢ ( 1 / σ i 2 ) wherein x is said weighted mean intensity in said expression level of said cellular constituent in said biological system; wherein x i is an intensity measurement of an individual measurement i for said cellular constituent in said biological system in a plurality of intensity measurements, wherein said plurality of intensity measurements comprises intensity measurements for said cellular constituent in said biological system from nominally repeated microarray experiments; wherein σ i 2 is a corresponding estimate of the amount of error of x i calculated based on a magnitude derived from an error distribution statistic; wherein said error distribution statistic is based on a reference nominally repeated microarray experiment and accounts for additive variance in each nominally repeated microarray experiment and a fractional multiplicative error level; wherein each intensity measurement x i in said plurality of intensity measurements is a measurement of an expression level of said cellular constituent in said biological system; and for each respective intensity measurement x i in said plurality of intensity measurements there is a corresponding estimate of the amount of error σ i 2 corresponding to the respective intensity measurement.