Background: High-density microarrays are ideally suited for analyzing thous
ands of genes against a small number of samples. The next step in the disco
very process is to take the resulting genes of interest and rapidly screen
them against thousands of patient samples, tissues, or cell lines to furthe
r investigate their involvement in disease risk or the response to medicati
on.
Methods: We used a microarray technology platform for both single-nucleotid
e polymorphisms (SNPs) and protein expression. Each microarray contains up
to 250 elements that can be customized for each application. Slides contain
ed either a 16- or 96-microarray format (4000-24 000 elements per slide), a
llowing the corresponding number of samples to be rapidly processed in para
llel.
Results: Results for SNP genotyping and protein profiling agreed with resul
ts of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis or ELISA, re
spectively. Genotyping analyses, using the microarray technology, on large
sample sets over multiple polymorphisms in the NAT2 gene were in full agree
ment with traditional methodologies, such as sequencing and RFLP analysis.
The multiplexed protein microarray had correlation coefficients of 0.82-0.9
9 (depending on analyte) compared with ELISAs.
Conclusions: The integrated microarray technology platform is adaptable and
versatile, while offering the high-throughput capabilities needed for drug
development and discovery applications. (C) 2001 American Association for
Clinical Chemistry.