Patent Document ID: 20150227681
Application ID: 14604834
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of conducting a weighted gene and feature test of autism (WGFTA) for autism screening, diagnosis or prognosis, comprising: a) obtaining an analyte from a biological sample of a subject to obtain analyte-associated gene expression levels of a set of at least 20 or more genes selected from a model derived from an autism reference database; b) statistically normalizing each expression level of the selected set of genes expressed to derive a normalized gene expression value (NGEV) for each gene in the selected set; c) preparing a weighted gene signature matrix (WGSM) of the selected gene set from the autism reference database; d) calculating a weighted gene expression level of each gene in the selected set by multiplying the NGEV for each gene by a gene-specific weight of that gene, wherein the gene-specific weights are derived from a computer-based bioinformatic analysis of the relative expression levels of at least the selected set of genes compiled in a weighted gene expression reference database (WGERD); and e) establishing the divergence of the set of each weighted gene expression level of the subject to the WGERD, to thereby conduct the WGFTA to indicate increasing correlation with autism risk, diagnosis or prognosis.