Mapping miRNA regulation to functional gene sets

Distinct cellular functions and biological process of cells will likely be reflected in alteration in levels of genes as well as their regulatory components, such as the level of miRNAs. By employing systems biology approaches, we will be able to unambiguously identify the regulatory pathways and biological processes that are unique to specific disease states or responses to treatment. In this study, we propose an additive and weighted model to combine all possible miRNA target predictions to study the regulation change at a specific gene set, pathway or interaction network, rather than individual miRNA, enabling researchers to construct regulation hypothesis at pathway or interaction network level.