An association rule-based CLIPS program for interactive prediction of MSC differentiation in vitro

In this paper, a software toolkit has been developed for in silica prediction of the differentiation destiny of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in vitro. The software toolkit was developed in CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) as an expert system, with a java-based GUI. This toolkit utilizes the rules obtained from previous experimental data via data mining techniques, based on which the prediction is to be made. Thus, the prediction accuracy can be affected by the amount and quality of the rules, which can be improved by both manual adjustment and expansion of the MSC differentiation database in future.