The Gene Expression Microarray Core at Cincinnati Children’s is available to perform the expression level analysis of thousands of genes in parallel. For most organisms it is now possible to provide a quantitative measure of the expression level of every gene. This powerful technology is becoming increasingly important in the study of developmental and disease processes, enabling scientists to achieve ambitious research goals such as identifying gene expression variation associated with disease and discovering new drug targets.
The Gene Expression Microarray Core uses commercial microarrays available from both Affymetrix and Illumina. High-quality RNA samples undergo a series of reactions designed to prepare a fragmented biotin-labeled DNA or RNA target. The labeled target is then hybridized to a microarray, which is washed, stained and scanned. Expression data is subsequently transferred back to the researcher and can be analyzed in collaboration with the Division of Biomedical Informatics.
