Table of Contents

Abstract. 1

List of abbreviations, acronyms & terms. 2

Table of Contents. 4

List of figures and tables. 6

Tables. 6

Figures. 6

Introduction. 7

Asthma background. 7

Current research state. 7

Purpose for this study. 7

Intent & scope. 8

Methods & materials. 9

Preliminary research. 9

Data sourcing. 9

Original experiment conditions. 9

Phase 1 – Data processing & gene selection. 9

Phase 2 – Data analysis. 10

Statistical analysis. 10

Second-order comparison. 10

Phase 3 – Literature research. 10

Results. 11

Phase 1 – Gene selection. 11

Phase 2 – Statistical analysis. 12

Sets A & D – Wilcoxon Matched Pairs test. 12

Sets B & C – Mann–Whitney U-test. 12

Combining results. 13

Phase 3 – Literature research. 14

Key findings. 14

STAT genes. 14

STAT2. 15

OAS genes. 15

Macrophages. 15

OAS-RNase pathway. 16

RNaseL independence. 16

Discussion. 17

Phase 2 – Statistical analysis. 17

Phase 3 – Literature research. 17

Differential expression causes. 18

Antiviral defence. 18

Missing SOCS. 18

Targets for therapeutic intervention. 19

STAT targets. 19

OAS targets. 19

Experimental design & limitations. 21

Original experiment. 21

Statistical analysis. 21

Literature research. 21

Conclusions. 22

Summary. 22

Further work. 22

References. 23

Appendices. 26

Appendix 1 – Data files. 26

Appendix 2 – Orthography. 27

Capitalization of genes and proteins. 27

Verb inflection – S/Z. 27

Appendix 3 – Text-based tables. 28

Table 1 – Phase 2 statistical analysis results summary. 28

Table 2 – Gene distribution summary from HPA.. 28

Appendix 4 – Software list. 29

Glossary 30