International Business Machines Corporation
DISCOVERY OF BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURES OF OPTIMIZED SENSITIVITY AND SPECIFICITY

Abstract:

A bioinformatics method is provided for identifying candidate biological sequences, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, with high sensitivity and specificity for application in procedures such as PCR and gene and protein sequencing. The method involves categorizing a collection of biological sequences within an out-group and an in-group, identifying the intersection between the in-group and the out-group, the union of the out-group, and a relative complement of sequences that are members of the in-group, but not the out-group. A biological signature for a species of interest with high sensitivity and specificity will be a member of the relative complement that has an out-group frequency of zero.