Application of genomics to the definition of the molecular basis for toxicity

Transcript profiling technology enables quantitative measurement of the tra nscriptional activity of potentially thousands of genes in biological sampl es. The application of such technology to toxicology, toxicogenomics, promi ses substantial dividends in mechanistic toxicity research and also, possib ly, the ability to predict adverse toxicity for novel or untested compounds . Our laboratory has developed a custom approach to this technology, design ing cDNA microarray platforms specifically for gene expression events of re levance to a large number of toxicological endpoints. Such arrays allow com prehensive coverage of genes associated with entire pathways (such as oxida tive stress, signal transduction, stress response, epithelial biology) and enable simultaneous measurement of more than ten thousand gene expression e vents. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.