Directed modification of the gene complement of a living organism by such techniques as altering the DNA, substituting genetic material by means of a virus, transplanting whole nuclei, transplanting cell hybrids, etc. New generations of instruments are appearing approximately every 18 months and many of the instruments are quite expensive. It is very clear that no single ionization technique can support all of the analytical questions involved in a proteome analysis. Tool for studying how large numbers of genes interact with each other and how a cell s regulatory networks control vast batteries of genes simultaneously. Uses a robot to precisely apply tiny droplets containing functional DNA to glass slides.
Researchers then attach fluorescent labels to DNA from the cell they are studying.
The labeled probes are allowed to bind to cDNA strands on the slides. The slides are put into a scanning microscope to measure how much of a specific DNA fragment is present. Microarrays have essentially become the workhorses of the modern wet lab. Great efforts have been made to fully integrate them within themselves, and within drug discovery pipelines. The results have been mixed.