Strategy for encoding and comparison of gene expression signatures.

EXALT (EXpression signature AnaLysis Tool) is a computational system enabling comparisons of microarray data across experimental platforms and different laboratories http://seq.mc.vanderbilt.edu/exalt/. An essential feature of EXALT is a database holding thousands of gene expression signatures extracted from the Gene Expression Omnibus, and encoded in a searchable format. This novel approach to performing global comparisons of shared microarray data may have enormous value when coupled directly with a shared data repository.