240 - Microarrays: an overview
Autor(s): O. Valentini, B. Milanesi
Issue: RIMeL - IJLaM, Vol. 3, N. 4, 2007 (MAF Servizi srl ed.)
Page(s): 240-255
Microarrays provide an unprecedented opportunity for comprehensive concurrent analysis of thousands of genes and gene products. Through a single analysis it is possible to collect a huge mass of data that can be stored in digital form and compared with previous and successive data in order to deduce, for example, which genes, and to what extent, are involved in physiological, pathological or drug-induced processes. They have many and various clinical applications, particularly in the diagnostics of neoplastic, infectious, allergic or autoimmune diseases. Data obtainable for a single patient make it possible to define in detail the diagnostic and prognostic picture and to choose the least toxic and most effective therapy.