Masters candidate in Biostatistics, Matt Kucera, will present:

“Assessment of Housekeeping Genes and Normalization Strategies for Estimation of Dairy Cow Gene Expression”

Plan B Adviser: Cavan Reilly

Abstract: Normalization techniques for certain types of gene expression data make use of housekeeping genes to assist in the minimization of erroneous conclusions. Validation of these techniques and of housekeeping genes is debated today with disagreements regarding chosen genes. This analysis aims to produce a single model to describe all levels of gene expression measured in liver tissue of dairy cows and compares the use of different housekeeping genes for normalization. Summary measures were used to assess the extent to which data collected on 2 different treatments with the same compound separated by several days could be pooled and longitudinal models were used for assessment of the preselected housekeeping genes. Results indicate that the data from 2 administered doses of the treatment can be pooled together and that no additional normalization may do just as well at modeling gene expression than any of the preselected housekeeping genes.