Representing Microarray Experiment Metadata Using Provenance Models

MAGE (MicroArray and Gene Expression) representations are primarily representations of work ow: a process was used to derive biomaterial A from biomaterial B. This representation is ideally suited for representation using provenance models such as OPM (Open Provenance Model) and PML (Proof Markup Language). We demonstrate methods and tools, MAGE2OPM and MAGE2PML, to convert RDF representations of RDF MAGE graphs to OPM and PML respectively. We evaluate the representations' expressiveness, visualization, and integration with existing data. We argue that provenance models are su cient to represent biomedical experimental metadata in general, and may provide a useful point of reference for unifying information from multiple systems, including biospecimen management, Laboratory Information Systems (LIMS), and computational work ow automation tools. This uni cation results in a complete, computationally useful derivational picture of biomedical experimental data.