Microarrays: An Overview

Gene expression microarrays are being used widely to address a myriad of complex biological questions. To gather meaningful expression data, it is crucial to have a firm understanding of the steps involved in the application of microarrays. The available microarray platforms are discussed along with their advantages and disadvantages. Additional considerations include study design, quality control and systematic assessment of microarray performance, RNA-labeling strategies, sample allocation, signal amplification schemes, defining the number of appropriate biological replicates, data normalization, statistical approaches to identify differentially regulated genes, and clustering algorithms for data visualization. In this chapter, the underlying principles regarding microarrays are reviewed, to serve as a guide when navigating through this powerful technology.