[BiO BB] multinomial distribution and Ig light chains

Maurya Kaut mkaut at bu.edu
Wed Apr 9 11:46:23 EDT 2003


  Hello,

I'm attempting to replicate the analysis of immunoglobulin genes as in 
this article:
Lossos, et al.  The Inference of Antigen Selection on Ig Genes.  The 
Journal of Immunology 165(9): 5122-5126 (2000)
The article is available here:
http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/165/9/5122
The Java applet mentioned in the paper is here:
http://www-stat.stanford.edu/immunoglobin/
The contact information in the paper no longer appears to be valid. 
 Basically, I'd like to understand the multinomial tail probability as 
they've applied it to heavy chains, so that I might apply it to light 
chains.  The information I've gathered on statistics thus far only 
explains bits and pieces of the equations, but I'm having trouble 
putting it all together.  I've written a Perl script that calculates 
expected replacement frequency for Ig light chain germline genes with 
some success, but the numbers I get for P values are two or three orders 
of magnitude off.  Firstly, I would just like to know if there is anyone 
who is familiar with this type of statistical work.  Also, I've heard of 
the "S" engine, and its cousin "R", but I'm not quite sure if they are 
applicable here.  Has anyone used them in conjuction with Perl/CGI?  Any 
advice is appreciated.

Maurya Kaut

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Maurya G. Kaut
Gerry Amyloid Research Laboratory
Boston University School of Medicine
715 Albany St. K-508
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 638-5389 - Voice
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