Research Project
Full description The purpose of this study is to manually and semi-automatically curate a database and develop an R package that will act as a comprehensive resource to understand how biological processes are dysregulated due to interactions with environmental factors. We followed a two-step process to achieve the objectives of this study. First, we conducted a systematic review of the existing gene expression datasets to identify the integrated genomic and environmental factors used in available studies. This enabled us to curate a comprehensive genomic-environmental database for four key environmental factors (smoking, diet, infections and toxic chemicals) associated with various autoimmune and chronic conditions. Second, we developed a statistical analysis package that allows users to understand the relationships between differentially expressed genes and environmental factors under different disease conditions.