Data structures for transcriptomics

The two main data structures used for transcriptomics data analysis in the Biomedical Genomics Workbench are tracks and experiments.

Tracks, also known as 'Genome Browser View', (see Genome Browser Tools) are the fundamental building blocks for data analysis in the Biomedical Genomics Workbench, where all information is tied to genomic positions. A central coordinate-system is provided by a reference genome, which allows that different types of data or results for different samples can be seen and analyzed together.

Experiments (see Experiments), on the other hand, are used to represent complex relationships between expression samples, and to carry out statistical analysis (see statistical analysis) of differential expression.

Tracks and experiments are intimately related, and it is possible in most cases to convert from one type to the other.