Genomics & Informatics  2013;11(1):55-57

doi:10.5808/GI.2013.11.1.55

siMacro: A Fast and Easy Data Processing Tool for Cell-Based Genomewide siRNA Screens.

Nitin Kumar SINGH 1 ; Bo Yeun SEO ; Mathukumalli VIDYASAGAR ; Michael A WHITE ; Hyun Seok KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

high-throughput screening assays; RNA interference

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Growing numbers of studies employ cell line-based systematic short interfering RNA (siRNA) screens to study gene functions and to identify drug targets. As multiple sources of variations that are unique to siRNA screens exist, there is a growing demand for a computational tool that generates normalized values and standardized scores. However, only a few tools have been available so far with limited usability. Here, we present siMacro, a fast and easy-to-use Microsoft Office Excel-based tool with a graphic user interface, designed to process single-condition or two-condition synthetic screen datasets. siMacro normalizes position and batch effects, censors outlier samples, and calculates Z-scores and robust Z-scores, with a spreadsheet output of >120,000 samples in under 1 minute.