Gene expression profiling: From microarrays to medicine

With the mapping of the human genome comes the ability to identify genes of interest in specific diseases and the pathways involved therein. Laboratory technology has evolved in parallel, providing us with the ability to assay thousands of these genes at once, a technique known as microarray analysis. The main question that this type of technology raises is how we can apply this powerful technology to clinical medicine. Recently, advances in data analysis, as well as standardization of the technology, have allowed us to examine this question, and indeed a few clinical trials currently being performed include microarrays as part of their protocol. In this review we outline the microarray technique and describe these types of studies in further detail.