PyGCluster, a novel hierarchical clustering approach

Abstract

pyGCluster is a clustering algorithm focusing on noise injection for subsequent cluster validation. The reproducibility of a large amount of clusters obtained with agglomerative hierarchical clustering is assessed. Furthermore, a multitude of different distance-linkage combinations are evaluated. Finally, highly reproducible clusters are meta-clustered into communities. Graphical illustration of the results as node and expression maps is implemented. pyGCluster requires Python 2.7, it is freely available at http://pyGCluster.github.io and published under MIT license. Dependencies are NumPy, SciPy and optionally fastcluster and rpy2. christan@fufezan.net Supplementary data is available at Bioinformatics online and at http://pyGCluster.github.io.