Bootstrap Evaluation of Association Matrices (BEAM) for Integrating Multiple Omics Profiles with Multiple Outcomes

MotivationLarge datasets containing multiple clinical and omics measurements for each subject motivate the development of new statistical methods to integrate these data to advance scientific discovery. ModelWe propose bootstrap evaluation of association matrices (BEAM), which integrates multiple omics profiles with multiple clinical endpoints. BEAM associates a set omic features with clinical endpoints via regression models and then uses bootstrap resampling to determine statistical significance of the set. Unlike existing methods, BEAM uniquely accommodates an arbitrary number of omic profiles and endpoints. ResultsIn simulations, BEAM performed similarly to the theoretically best simple test and outperformed other integrated analysis methods. In an example pediatric leukemia application, BEAM identified several genes with biological relevance established by a CRISPR assay that had been missed by univariate screens and other integrated analysis methods. Thus, BEAM is a powerful, flexible, and robust tool to identify genes for further laboratory and/or clinical research evaluation. AvailabilitySource code, documentation, and a vignette for BEAM are available on GitHub at: https://github.com/annaSeffernick/BEAMR. The R package is available from CRAN at: https://cran.r-project.org/package=BEAMR. ContactStanley.Pounds@stjude.org Supplementary InformationSupplementary data are available at the journals website.