|
Extensive research in this decade has led to detailed understanding of genetic changes underlying human cancers. Two major tumorigenic events are mutation and amplification of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. These events then trigger a series of signal transduction cascades, activating expression of downstream genes that control various cellular activities including cell cycle progression, DNA synthesis, programmed cell death, DNA repair, and cell migration. Investigations of these molecular pathways has led to the identification of many targets for therapeutic intervention. Knowledge of the expression patterns and functions of all human genes wil l provide a frame work for future molecular, genetic medicine. During the past ten years, the human genome project has generated an enormous amount of sequencing information, and sequencing of the entire human genome may be completed by the year 2003 (1,2). One can envision that this will irreversibly transform the methodology of medical research and the practice of medicine. The search for new genes, which currently consumes the effort of many talented scientists, will become past history. Additionally, studying one gene at a time will be replaced by studying large number of genes simultaneously(3). Reductionistic approaches to human disease will be replaced by systemic approach. As a prelude to this revolution, tools used for parallel analysis of gene expression in the format of ordered gene arrays have been developed and are under continued expansion. In this technical tip, we will introduce the Atlas Human cDNA Expression Array system developed by Clontech Laboratories, Inc.(4). With this technology, a conventional laboratory can profile the expression of 588 human genes simultaneously in one simple experiment without the using of expensive equipment. We will demonstrate the profiling of 588 genes in a human glioblastoma cell line to exemplify the utility of this technique.
|