Generative adversarial networks applied to gene expression analysis: An interdisciplinary perspective

The remarkable flexibility and adaptability of generative adversarial networks (GANs) have led to the proliferation of its models in bioinformatics research. Proteomic and transcriptomic profiles have been shown to be promising methods for discovering and identifying disease biomarkers. However, those analyses were performed by trained human examiners making the process tedious, time consuming, and hard to standardize. With the development of GANs, it is now possible to reduce computational costs and human time for bioinformatics analysis to produce effective biomarkers. Moreover, GANs help address the lack of phenotypic state transitional gene expression data as well as avoid protected human data constraints by generating RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data from random vectors. The purpose of this review is to summarize the use of GAN approaches and techniques to augment RNA-seq expression data and identify clinically useful biomarkers. We compare different studies that use different types of GAN models to examine the biomarkers. Also, we identify research gaps and challenges that apply GANs to bio-informatics. Finally, we propose potential directions for future research.