摘要
Functional genomics employs dozens of OMICs technologies to explore the functions of DNA, RNA and protein regulators in gene regulation processes. Despite each of these technologies being powerful tools on their own, fike the parable of blind men and an elephant, any one single technology has a limited ability to depict the complex regulatory system. Integrative OMICS approaches have emerged and become an important area in biology and medicine. It provides a precise and effective way to study gene regulations. Results： This article reviews current popular OMICs technologies, OMICs data integration strategies, and bioinformatics tools used for multi-dimensional data integration. We highlight the advantages of these methods, particularly in elucidating molecular basis of biological regulatory mechanisms. Conclusions： To better understand the complexity of biological processes, we need powerful bioinformatics tools to integrate these OMICs data. Integrating multi-dimensional OMICs data will generate novel insights into system-level gene regulations and serves as a foundation for further hypothesis-driven research.
Functional genomics employs dozens of OMICs technologies to explore the functions of DNA, RNA and protein regulators in gene regulation processes. Despite each of these technologies being powerful tools on their own, fike the parable of blind men and an elephant, any one single technology has a limited ability to depict the complex regulatory system. Integrative OMICS approaches have emerged and become an important area in biology and medicine. It provides a precise and effective way to study gene regulations. Results： This article reviews current popular OMICs technologies, OMICs data integration strategies, and bioinformatics tools used for multi-dimensional data integration. We highlight the advantages of these methods, particularly in elucidating molecular basis of biological regulatory mechanisms. Conclusions： To better understand the complexity of biological processes, we need powerful bioinformatics tools to integrate these OMICs data. Integrating multi-dimensional OMICs data will generate novel insights into system-level gene regulations and serves as a foundation for further hypothesis-driven research.
基金
Our work was supported by a Direct Grant for Research from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China （No. 4053150） to JQ, research grants from Research Grants Council, Hong Kong SAR, China （No. 17121414M）, the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos. 81572786 and 91529303）, startup funds from Mayo Clinic （Mayo Clinic Arizona and Center for Individualized Medicine） to JW, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 11526144） and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong （No. 2016A030310038） to YH.
