{"id":24,"date":"2014-10-08T20:03:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:26:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:26:29","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-946 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2014\/10\/maayan-research.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"704\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2014\/10\/maayan-research.jpg 704w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2014\/10\/maayan-research-300x118.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The Ma&#8217;ayan Laboratory applies computational and mathematical methods to study the complexity of regulatory networks in mammalian cells. We apply machine learning and other statistical mining techniques to study how intracellular regulatory systems function as networks to control cellular processes such as differentiation, dedifferentiation, apoptosis and proliferation. We develop software systems to help experimental biologists form novel hypotheses from high-throughput data, while aiming to better understand the structure and function of regulatory networks in mammalian cellular and multi-cellular systems.<\/p>\n<h3>NIH-funded Centers<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/info.cfde.cloud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Data Resource Center (DRC) for the Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE)<\/a> (2023-2028)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/proteomics.cancer.gov\/programs\/cptac\/consortium\/cptac-teams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mount Sinai Proteogenomic Data Analysis Center (PGDAC)<\/a> (2022-2027)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maayanlab.cloud\/archs4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ARCHS4 an Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Resource<\/a> (2022-2027)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/d2h2.maayanlab.cloud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Diabetes Data and Hypothesis Hub (D2H2)<\/a> (2022-2025)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/targetcentral.ws\/KMC_ISMMS\">Mount Sinai&#8217;s Knowledge Management Center for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (KMC-IDG)<\/a> (2014-2023)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/lincs-dcic.org\/#\/\">BD2K-LINCS Data Coordination and Integration Center (DCIC)<\/a> (2014-2022)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Largest and Most Diverse Collection of Annotated Gene Sets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Gene set enrichment analysis is central to many biological and biomedical projects that measure mRNA and protein expression at the whole-genome scale. Gene set enrichment analysis is typically limited to few literature-base background knowledge libraries such as those created from the Gene Ontology and from pathway databases such as KEGG, WikiPathways, and Reactome. We have demonstrated that enrichment analysis can be expanded to using data from many other biological domains. For developing the tools <a title=\"Enrichr\" href=\"https:\/\/maayanlab.cloud\/Enrichr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enrichr<\/a>, <a title=\"Enrichr-KG\" href=\"https:\/\/maayanlab.cloud\/enrichr-kg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enrichr-KG<\/a>, <a title=\"Rummagene\" href=\"https:\/\/rummagene.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rummagene<\/a>, <a title=\"Rummageo\" href=\"https:\/\/rummageo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rummageo<\/a>, kinase enrichment analysis (<a title=\"kinase enrichment analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/maayanlab.cloud\/kea3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KEA<\/a>), ChIP-seq enrichment analysis (<a title=\"ChIP-seq enrichment analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/maayanlab.cloud\/chea3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ChEA<\/a>), and Harmonizome, we have integrated data from many key biomedical resources into useful gene set libraries. These libraries better inform enrichment analyses from omics studies. So far, over 2 million unique users used these bioinformatics software applications with a current rate of ~4,000 unique users per day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Original Methods to Identify Differentially Expressed Genes, Perform Gene Set Enrichment Analyses, and Benchmark these Data Analysis Methods<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">One of the key statistical tests in the fields of transcriptomics is the identification of differentially expressed genes. We developed a multivariate method called the <a title=\"Characteristic Direction\" href=\"https:\/\/bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/1471-2105-15-79\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Characteristic Direction<\/a> to better identify the \u201ccorrect\u201d differentially expressed genes. The Characteristic Direction method was extended to also perform improved <a title=\"enrichment analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4737646\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enrichment analysis<\/a> using a similar concept. Using a unique <a title=\"benchmarking strategy\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10638921\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">benchmarking strategy<\/a>, we can objectively evaluate the Characteristic Direction method and many other leading methods for differential expression and enrichment analyses such as limma, GSEA and DESeq.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Translational Computational Research in Cancer and Kidney Disease<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">In collaboration with other experimental and computational biology laboratories, we have made great strides in the past several years in studying kidney disease, diabetes, HIV, and cancer. We have developed unique computational methods that led to the identification of potential targets and drugs for attenuating kidney fibrosis, diabetic kidney disease, and HIVAN. Our collaborative work also proposed treatment combinations for early-stage kidney disease intervention. These advances were possible by applying the unique algorithms that we developed which include: <a title=\"Expression2Kinases\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6030863\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Expression2Kinases<\/a>, <a title=\"SigCom LINCS\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC9252724\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SigCom LINCS<\/a>, and <a title=\"TargetRanger\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10320068\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TargetRanger<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Innovative Bioinformatics Software Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">To lower the barrier of entry for bioinformaticians and to streamline the development of bioinformatics software applications, we developed <a title=\"Appyters\" href=\"https:\/\/appyters.maayanlab.cloud\/#\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Appyters<\/a>. With Appyters bioinformaticians can rapidly develop full-stack web-based bioinformatics applications from their Jupyter Notebook. Currently over 100 Appyters are available from the Appyters Catalog. For a CFDE Partnership project, our team developed the <a title=\"Playbook Workflow Builder\" href=\"https:\/\/playbook-workflow-builder.cloud\/graph\/extend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Playbook Workflow Builder<\/a>, a platform that facilitates the visual dynamic construction of bioinformatics workflows. Along these efforts, we also created <a title=\"FAIRshake\" href=\"https:\/\/fairshake.cloud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FAIRshake<\/a>, a flexible framework for performing manual and automated evaluation of digital objects for adherence to defined community established standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ma&#8217;ayan Laboratory applies computational and mathematical methods to study the complexity of regulatory networks in mammalian cells. We apply machine learning and other statistical mining techniques to study how intracellular regulatory systems function as networks to control cellular processes such as differentiation, dedifferentiation, apoptosis and proliferation. We develop software systems to help experimental biologists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/maayanlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}