Increasing the discovery power of -omics studies

Current clinical and biological studies apply different biotechnologies and subsequently combine the resulting -omics data to test biological hypotheses. The plethora of -omics data and their combination generates a large number of hypotheses and apparently increases the study power. Contrary to these expectations, the wealth of -omics data may even reduce the statistical power of a study because of a large correction factor for multiple testing. Typically, this loss of power in analyzing -omics data are caused by an increased false detection rate (FDR) in measurements, like falsely detected DNA copy number changes, or falsely identified differentially expressed genes. The false detections are random and, therefore, not related to the tested conditions. Thus, a high FDR considerably decreases the discovery power of studies, especially if different -omics data are involved.