Technology Overview

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism

Gene Expression Profiling

Comparative Genomic Hybridization

Gross genetic aberrations are responsible for many diseases, including Down’s, Prader Willi, Angelman and Cri du Chat syndromes, and also for the development of neoplastic potential in a number of malignancies. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was developed for genome-wide analysis of DNA sequence copy number in a single experiment. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) has been broadly applied in human malignancies to study the chromosomal changes that frequently occur in cancer cells, including the loss or duplication of regions of chromosomal DNA.

Microarray-based CGH has enabled researchers to rapidly explore chromosomal changes on the same platform they would use to study gene expression changes. The combination of these powerful tools on a single platform has greatly impacted the discovery of oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, drug targets and biomarkers.