Identification of Biomarkers Driving Blood Cell Development

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A blood cell lineage consists of several consecutive developmental stages from the pluripotent or multipotent stem cell to a particular stage of terminally differentiated cells. There is considerable interest in identifying the key regulatory genes that govern blood cell development from the gene expression data without considering the underlying network between transcription factors (TFs) and their target genes. In this study, we introduce a novel expression pattern that key regulators expose along the differentiation path. We deploy this pattern to identify the cell-specific key regulators responsible for the development. As proof of concept, we consider this approach to data on six developmental stages from mouse embryonic stem cells to terminally differentiated macrophages.