A simple and efficient algorithm for gene selection using sparse logistic regression

Motivation: This paper gives a new and efficient algorithm for the sparse logistic regression problem. The proposed algorithm is based on the Gauss-Seidel method and is asymptotically convergent. It is simple and extremely easy to implement; it neither uses any sophisticated mathematical programming software nor needs any matrix operations. It can be applied to a variety of real-world problems like identifying marker genes and building a classifier in the context of cancer diagnosis using microarray data. Results: The gene selection method suggested in this paper is demonstrated on two real-world data sets and the results were found to be consistent with the literature.