High density synthetic oligonucleotide arrays

Experimental genomics involves taking advantage of sequence information to investigate and understand the workings of genes, cells and organisms. We h ave developed an approach in which sequence information is used directly to design high-density, two-dimensional arrays of synthetic oligonucleotides. The GeneChip(R) probe arrays are made using spatially patterned, light-dir ected combinatorial chemical synthesis, and contain up to hundreds of thous ands of different oligonucleotides on a small glass surface. The arrays hav e been designed and used for quantitative and highly parallel measurements of gene expression, to discover polymorphic loci and to detect the presence of thousands of alternative alleles. Here, we describe the fabrication of the arrays, their design and some specific: applications to high-throughput genetic and cellular analysis.