Chapter 8 - Expression Arrays: Discovery and Validation

Abstract

Disease states such as cancer are the products of multiple genetic changes resulting in broad shifts in gene and protein expression. Traditionally, molecular diagnostic techniques have looked at one gene or gene product at a time, but recent technical advances now permit a large-scale view of the gene expression profile of a biologic sample. This chapter discusses how specimens are handled, the fast-evolving technology platforms used to generate expression profiles, how the data is analyzed, and how this approach can be used clinically.