Microarray and gene expression studies
Many biochemical and molecular biological procedures use specific interactions for the detection of individual molecules, like the sequence-specific hybridization of nucleic acids. Based on this principle, nucleic acid-microarrays allow the rapid and simultaneous analysis of thousands of genes for expression profiling, mapping, sequencing and polymorphism detection.
This high-throughput method of nucleic acid analysis has defined the field of functional genomics. RNA samples from any cell or tissue type can be analyzed for changes in transcript levels that might indicate their involvement in development, cancer, infection, response to a drug or any other biological process. Microarray technology can also be used for sequencing, genotyping and comparative genomics applications.
For a good coverage of spotted microarray technology, you can read « A molecular cloning manual : DNA Microarray”, edited by D. Bowtell & J. Sambrook, 2002, CSHL press. In addition to expression profiling areas covered include uses of microarrays for analysis of chromatin immunoprecipitation samples, DNA copy number determination, and detection of genetic polymorphisms (oligo arrays). The bioinformatics section is less extensive than the experimental parts, but the chapters on clustering, self organizing maps and databases serve as good introductions to these areas.
