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DNA Microarray - A technology that is reshaping molecular biology It is widely believed that thousands of genes and their products (i.e., proteins) in a given living organism function in a complicated and orchestrated way that creates the mystery of life. However, traditional methods in molecular biology generally work on a "one gene in one experiment" basis, which means that the throughput is very limited and the "whole picture" of gene function is hard to obtain. In the past several years, a new technology, called DNA microarray, has attracted tremendous interests among biologists. This technology promises to monitor the whole genome on a single chip so that researchers can have a better picture of the interactions among thousands of genes simultaneously. There are two major application forms for the DNA microarray technology: 1) Identification of sequence (gene / gene mutation); and 2) Determination of expression level (abundance) of genes. |