Method and apparatus for displaying information

1. A method of diagnosing prostate cancer in a prostate tissue sample comprising:

forming a spatial layout of tiles, each tile corresponding to a representative reference element in a mosaic;

mapping observed elements of a prostate tissue sample onto the spatial layout of tiles of representative reference elements, the observed elements comprising gene expression levels in a prostate tissue sample;

assigning a respective value to each respective tile of the spatial layout of representative reference elements; and

displaying, using a graphics engine, an image of the spatial layout of tiles of representative reference elements,

wherein each tile comprises atomic attributes of representative elements.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the prostate tissue sample comprises a prostate tumor.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising classifying the stage of the prostate tumor based on the displayed image.

4. A method of diagnosing prostate cancer comprising:

forming a spatial layout of tiles, each tile corresponding to a representative reference element in a mosaic;

mapping observed elements onto the spatial layout of tiles of representative reference elements, the observed elements comprising gene expression levels in a prostate tissue sample;

assigning a respective value to each respective tile of the spatial layout of representative reference elements; and

displaying, using a graphics engine, an image of the spatial layout of tiles of representative reference elements,

wherein each tile comprises a visual representation of the respective value of the number of observed elements.

5. The method claim 4 wherein forming the spatial layout of tiles, each tile corresponding to the representative reference element in the mosaic, comprises forming a self-organizing map.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein forming a self-organizing map comprises:

a) forming representative reference elements;

b) matching an observed element to a respective representative reference element to select a best unit matching centroid;

c) adjusting the best unit matching centroid to form an adjusted best unit matching centroid; and

d) iterating steps b and c a plurality of times for each observed element.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein matching the observed element to the respective representative reference element comprises measuring the Euclidean distance between the observed element and each representative reference element; and selecting the representative reference element having the smallest Euclidean distance.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein matching the observed element to the respective representative reference element comprises measuring a correlation between the observed element and each representative reference element; and selecting the representative reference element having the highest correlation.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein adjusting the best unit matching centroid comprises adjusting the value of the representative reference element to form an adjusted best unit matching centroid.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein assigning the respective value to each respective tile of the spatial layout of representative reference elements comprises assigning a color to each respective tile in response to the value of the tile.

11. The method of claim 4 wherein assigning the respective value to each respective tile of the spatial layout of representative reference elements comprises assigning a height to each respective tile in response to the value of the tile in a three-dimensional graph.

12. The method of claim 4 wherein the respective value of the respective tile is a value associated with the respective reference element.

13. The method of claim 4 wherein assigning the respective value to each respective tile of the spatial layout of representative reference elements comprises assigning, to each respective tile in response to the value of the tile, a property selected from the group consisting of symbol shape, size, hue and pitch.

14. The method of claim 4 further comprising concatenating data comprising observed elements.

15. The method of claim 4 , wherein the observed elements comprise gene expression levels in at least one prostate tissue sample from a patient and gene expression levels in at least one normal prostate tissue sample.

16. A method of diagnosing prostate cancer by displaying data obtained from observed elements in a prostate tissue sample, the method comprising:

a) normalizing data of observed elements, the observed elements comprising gene expression levels in a prostate tissue sample;

b) generating reference centroids;

c) generating a map of the reference centroids;

d) matching an observed element to a respective reference centroid;

e) adjusting the respective reference centroid and neighboring reference centroids within a neighborhood radius;

f) iterating steps e and f using a processor, modifying the strength of adjustment and the neighborhood radius to form a plurality of adjusted reference centroids;

g) matching each observed element to a respective adjusted reference centroid of the plurality of adjusted reference centroids;

h) assigning a respective value for each adjusted reference centroid;

i) assigning a respective graphic representation to each respective value;

j) displaying a mosaic of each graphic representation; and

k) determining whether the prostate tissue sample is normal or diseased based on the displayed mosaic.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising iterating step j) to form a motion graphic.