Lab-visit: The application of microarrays
DNA-microarrays are small glass-ware chips with on their surface an array of a large quantity of DNA probes. Microarrays are used in several types of genome-wide screening experiments. The absence or presence of genomic DNA segments in patients is examined by array-based comparative genomic hybridization (Array-CGH). Three platforms for CGH analysis are available at our Department that is also the microarray core facility of the UMCG. A 6.5K BAC array was developed in our own group. This array consists of 6500 DNA fragments with an average size of 175 kb. In addition, we have available two commercial platforms. One platform is based on arrays 105K or 244K 60mer oligonucleotides (Agilent), and one (Illumina) is a so called SNP-array platform. In arrayCGH experiments patient-DNA is hybridized to one of these arrays consisting of genomic DNA fragments, enabling the detection of deletions or duplications in the genome of the patient. This technique is in particular applied find out the cause of idiopathic mental retardation and multiple congenital abnormalities in young children. In addition arrayCGH plays an important role in the analysis of genome integrity in (series) of tumours. During the guided tour, the instrumentation for production and application of microarrays will be demonstrated, as well as the software used for the quantification and data analyses of microarrays.
