DeBias: generalized framework for analysis of coupled cell biological variables

Assaf Zaritsky and colleagues introduced DeBias, software for the analysis of complex relations between coupled cellular variables, published this month in eLife. DeBias decouples the global bias of external effectors from direct interaction, proposing a second measurement for co-localization and co-alignment analyses. Global bias is often a neglected in interpretation of coupled variables, but encapsulates fundamental mechanistic insight into cellular behavior, as showcased in the paper in four different areas of cell biology. The DeBias software package is freely accessible online via the UTSW BioHPC web-server.

eLife is a peer-reviewed open access journal that publishes outstanding fundamental and theoretical research in the life sciences and biomedicine. Led by editor-in-chief Randy Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology, the journal is one part of a unique, non-profit collaboration between research practitioners and the journal’s funders – Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Max-Planck Society and Wellcome Trust.