MAGE-TAB

Sharing of microarray data within the research community has been greatly facilitated by the development of the disclosure and communication standards MIAME and MAGE-ML by the FGED Society. However, the complexity of the MAGE-ML format has made its use impractical for laboratories lacking dedicated bioinformatics support. We propose a simple tab-delimited, spreadsheet-based format, MAGE-TAB, which will become a part of the MAGE microarray data standard and can be used for annotating and communicating microarray data in a MIAME compliant fashion. MAGE-TAB will enable laboratories without bioinformatics experience or support to manage, exchange and submit well-annotated microarray data in a standard format using a spreadsheet. The MAGE-TAB format is self-contained, and does not require an understanding of MAGE-ML or XML.

MAGE-TAB publication: A simple spreadsheet-based, MIAME-supportive format for microarray data: MAGE-TAB. Tim F. Rayner et al. (2006) BMC Bioinformatics, 7, 489

MAGE-TAB Specification & Tools:

• MAGE-TAB Specification 1.1 (PDF, 58Mb), Released 2011-07-28
• Annotare is a software tool for use by bench biologists to help them annotate biomedical investigations and generate MAGE-TAB formatted results for sharing or deposition into data repositories.
• Other MAGE-TAB tools
  

MAGE-TAB Examples, Mappings, Workshop:

• MAGE-TAB Annotation Examples
  
• MAGE-TAB Mappings to other formats
• MAGE-TAB Workshop, 2008-01-24
  

Historical: MAGE-TAB Specification 1.0 (tar.gz, 12Mb), Released 2007-03-20, includes sample data files.