The microarray revolution in biomedical research: types of platforms, uses and perspectives in oncology

Abstract

Through the introduction, use and management of genome-based tools, research into genetic alterations that give rise to diseases as common as cancer has undergone a technical revolution comparable to the introduction of the microscope in laboratories. Now, study of the gene-disease relationship is no longer based on analysing a single gene and its effects, but on analysing the behaviour of thousands of genes in a simultaneous form. These systems, generically called matrices, arrays, microarrays or biochips, are changing the way we pose problems and draw conclusions from experiments, since they offer us a complex photo of the genome as a whole. Analyses of expression through microarrays of cDNI or oligos are now accessible to the Spanish scientific community. The results have proved fascinating to researchers since they can be reproduced easily and contribute a great quantity of information on the regulation of the gene expression in normal and pathological conditions.