SOX18 and pulmonary arterial hypertension: For validation, we performed RNA interference-mediated knockdown of top novel candidate genes in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells and measured the expression of SRY-Box Transcription Factor 18 (SOX18), a signature gene of pulmonary arterial hypertension.<h4>Results</h4>In silico perturbation analysis identified 134 candidate genes whose deletion was predicted to shift cells towards a disease phenotype.