This suggests that, at least in theory, a 50-gene microarray, together with the right software, could provide an extremely accurate diagnostic tool.As for the high cost of biochips, there are signs that it could be on the way down.
The researchers used an off-the-shelf microarray made by Affymetrix, a company that pioneered the biochip, to analyse bone-marrow samples taken from 38 patients with two similar forms of leukaemia, one called acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and the other acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
The results, just published in Nature, show that those fates were predictable from a genetic analysis of the tumorous tissue.A gene microarray consists, as its name suggests, of an array of tiny cells (the microarray used by Dr Friend has 25,000 of them).
They also recommend that new technologies, such as microarray analysis of gene activity, be used by regulators alongside conventional assessments of nutritional value and toxicity.English Nature has been assessing the ecological impact of GM crops.
An essential part of the solution turned out to be the DNA microarray, a tiny glass chip dotted with thousands of DNA fragments that can be used to measure the activity of genes or identify variations in people's genetic make-up.Such DNA chips have revolutionised biological research.
The TRANSBIG trial will assess the ability of microarray data to distinguish between these two groups by testing 5,000 women for the expression patterns of 70 genes.
FishPopTrace, a European consortium, has developed a DNA microarray that can track which population a fish comes from.
At the same time, many more types of chips have become available, including those that span the entire human genome.Chips with everythingOne field that has particularly benefited from microarray analysis is cancer research.
Hannah Keartland of Cancer Research UK believes the mobile game is the first of its kind.The game was created from the DNA microarray data found in a breast cancer trial by Carlos Calda for Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute.
Many scientists then started building their own microarray spotters and scanners for about $25,000.Whether commercially produced or home-made, DNA chips had become more common in research labs by the late 1990s.
Each time it does an experimental run, the average microarray spits out some 50 megabytes of data all of which has to be stored, managed and made available to researchers.
