Gene Expression Omnibus: NCBI gene expression and hybridization array data repository

TLDR

The Gene Expression Omnibus was created to satisfy the need for a public repository of high‑throughput gene expression data, serving as a tertiary hub that complements specialized in‑house databases. GEO’s open, flexible design supports submission, storage, and retrieval of heterogeneous datasets through its core entities—platforms, samples, and series—each defined by probe lists, sample–platform relationships, and sample groupings, and is publicly accessible via the NCBI website.

Abstract

The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) project was initiated in response to the growing demand for a public repository for high-throughput gene expression data. GEO provides a flexible and open design that facilitates submission, storage and retrieval of heterogeneous data sets from high-throughput gene expression and genomic hybridization experiments. GEO is not intended to replace in house gene expression databases that benefit from coherent data sets, and which are constructed to facilitate a particular analytic method, but rather complement these by acting as a tertiary, central data distribution hub. The three central data entities of GEO are platforms, samples and series, and were designed with gene expression and genomic hybridization experiments in mind. A platform is, essentially, a list of probes that define what set of molecules may be detected. A sample describes the set of molecules that are being probed and references a single platform used to generate its molecular abundance data. A series organizes samples into the meaningful data sets which make up an experiment. The GEO repository is publicly accessible through the World Wide Web at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo.