Patent ID: 7003403

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for quantifying relative gene relatedness for a plurality of candidate genes for which a plurality of gene expression level observations have been collected, the method comprising: for a predicted candidate gene selected from the plurality of candidate genes, selecting a plurality of subset gene combinations of the plurality of candidate genes, and performing (a)–(c) for each subset gene combination to generate a plurality of quantifications of relative relatedness for the predicted candidate gene and the subset combinations: (a) based on data comprising the plurality of gene expression level observations for the plurality of candidate genes, constructing a multivariate nonlinear model predicting gene expression for the predicted candidate gene, wherein the multivariate nonlinear model accepts gene expression levels for the subset gene combination of the plurality of candidate genes as inputs and produces a gene expression level for the predicted candidate gene as an output; (b) predicting gene expression of the predicted candidate gene with the multivariate nonlinear model; and (c) measuring effectiveness of the multivariate nonlinear model in accurately predicting the gene expression level of the predicted candidate gene as compared to the gene expression level observations, the effectiveness being a quantification of relative gene relatedness of the predicted gene and the subset gene combination of the plurality of candidate genes with respect to other subset gene combinations of the plurality of candidate genes as determined by comparing effectiveness of the multivariate nonlinear model with effectiveness of other multivariate nonlinear models constructed for other subset gene combinations, the other multivariate nonlinear models being of a same type as the multivariate nonlinear model; and presenting a ranked plurality of the plurality of quantifications of relative gene relatedness for a plurality of the subset gene combinations of the plurality of candidate genes.