MetaPath

MetaPath performs meta-analysis pathway enrichment to integrate genomic studies at the gene and pathway levels and identify enriched biological pathways across multiple datasets.

Key Features:

• MAPE_G: Aggregates statistical significance across studies at the individual gene level for pathway enrichment meta-analysis.
• MAPE_P: Conducts meta-analysis directly at the pathway level without requiring gene matching across studies.
• MAPE_I: Integrates MAPE_G and MAPE_P to combine complementary information from gene-level and pathway-level analyses.
• Increased statistical power: Demonstrates increased statistical power relative to single-study analyses as shown in simulation results.
• Complementary strategies: Provides complementary insights depending on whether gene matching across studies is feasible.
• Evaluation framework: Performance has been evaluated using comprehensive simulations and real-world analyses.

Scientific Applications:

• Pathway meta-analysis across studies: Identifies enriched biological pathways by integrating genomic results from multiple studies at gene and/or pathway levels.
• Drug-response analysis in breast cancer cell lines: Analyzes pathway enrichment associated with drug response in breast cancer cell line datasets.
• Lung cancer tissue analysis: Analyzes pathway enrichment in lung cancer tissue datasets.
• Performance benchmarking via simulations: Benchmarks method performance and statistical power using simulation studies.
• Cross-study pathway analysis without gene matching: Enables pathway-level meta-analysis when gene matching between studies is challenging or impossible.

Methodology:

MetaPath implements two primary approaches—MAPE_G, which aggregates statistical significance across studies at the gene level, and MAPE_P, which performs pathway-level meta-analysis without requiring gene matching between studies—and combines them via MAPE_I; performance was assessed with comprehensive simulations and real-world analyses of drug response in breast cancer cell lines and lung cancer tissues.