Two recent complementary advances, one in knowledge and one in technology, are greatly facilitating the study of gene expression and the discovery of the roles played by specific genes in the development of disease. As a result of the Human Genome Project, there has been an explosion in the amount of information available about the DNA sequence of the human genome. Consequently, researchers have identified a large number of novel genes within these previously unknown sequences. The challenge currently facing scientists is to find a way to organize and catalog this vast amount of information into a usable form. Only after the functions of the new genes are discovered will the full impact of the Human Genome Project be realized.
The second advance may facilitate the identification and classification of this DNA sequence information and the assignment of functions to these new genes: the emergence of DNA microarray technology. A microarray works by exploiting the ability of a given mRNA molecule to bind specifically to, or hybridize to, the DNA template from which it originated. By using an array containing many DNA samples, scientists can determine, in a single experiment, the expression levels of hundreds or thousands of genes within a cell by measuring the amount of mRNA bound to each site on the array. With the aid of a computer, the amount of mRNA bound to the spots on the microarray is precisely measured, generating a profile of gene expression in the cell.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/primer/microarrays.html
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