A Gaussian Process Model for Inferring the Dynamic Transcription Factor Activity

In molecular biology and genetics, a transcription factor is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequence. Transcription factors control the flow (or transcription) of genetic information from DNA to mRNA. To develop models of cellular processes quantitative estimation of the regulatory relationship between transcription factors and genes is a basic requirement. It is difficult for a number of reasons: transcription factors' expression levels are often low and noisy, and many transcription factors are post- transcriptionally regulated. So, from the expression levels of their target genes it is functional to infer the activity of the transcription factors.