Determining sample size in a miRNA experiment

Question

[mgab]

I would like to conduct a miRNA experiment using high-throughput. I would like to determine the appropriate sample size to use. There are microarray methods to determine sample size. Is there any method for determining sample size in miRNA? Thank you.

m

Answer 1

[Devon Ryan]

Yes, there's scotty and the bioconductor RNASeqPower package. In general, though, you end up selecting a published dataset and hoping that yours is similar. So how reliable this is comes down to how similar the effect sizes are. Realistically speaking, most people decide how much they want to spend first and then figure out how many samples they can afford (and if you can afford a LOT of samples then just do things the right way with a pilot project).

Answer 2

[mgab]

Thanks Devon. Much appreciated. m