It is widely believed that thousands of genes with their associated RNA and protein products in a
living organism function in a complicated and orchestrated way creating life.
However, traditional methods in molecular biology generally work on a "one gene in one experiment"
basis, which means that analysis is limited and the "whole picture" of gene function is hard to obtain. Over the past several years, a new technology called DNA Microarray has attracted tremendous interest among biologists. This technology promises to monitor the whole genome on a single slide so that researchers can have a better picture of the interactions among thousands of genes
simultaneously¹.
Key points:
A microarray consists of gene
sequences or fragments of genes called expressed sequence
tags (ESTs).
A robotic device distributes small
amounts of hundreds or thousands of ESTs on a single
microarray substrate.
A Genetic messenger (RNA) which
signals protein production for a particular cell of interest
is labeled, purified, and hybridized to the microarray.
An imaging device/scanner reads the
signal intensity (degree of hybridization) of a sample to
each spot on the microarray.
Analysis
software formulates information generated from the imaging device and is used to extract, manage and understand information collected from microarray. TIGR
MEV is an example of this software and is used after spot intensity data has been converted into numeric values.
TIGR MEV is an open source bioinformatics system used for computational microarray analysis. Portions of
this software were developed by DataNaut Inc.; however, all rights and title in and to this software
are owned and retained by The Institute for Genomic Research. If you are interested in obtaining the
software visit the TIGR web site.
DataNaut provides software development consulting services with extensive expertise with microarray
technologies. Organizations that are interested in using DataNaut consulting services or having
TIGR MEV customized for specific research applications can send email to info@datanaut.com.
