High-Dimensional Covariate-Dependent Gaussian Graphical Models

Abstract: Motivated by dynamic biologic network analysis, we propose a covariate-dependent Gaussian graphical model (cdexGGM) for capturing network structure that varies with covariates through a novel parameterization. Utilizing a likelihood framework, our methodology jointly estimates all dynamic edge and vertex parameters. We further develop statistical inference procedures to test the dynamic nature of the underlying network. Concerning large-scale networks, we perform composite likelihood estimation with an $\ell_1$ penalty to discover sparse dynamic network structures. We establish the estimation error bound in $\ell_2$ norm and validate the sign consistency in the high-dimensional context. We apply our method to an influenza vaccine data set to model the dynamic gene network that evolves with time. We also investigate a Down syndrome data set to model the dynamic protein network which varies under a factorial experimental design. These applications demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model. The supplemental materials for this article are available online.