Chambered Microarrays: Relevance to Genomic Data

The obvious utility of microarray technology is its incredibly high feature density. An entire genome can be assayed in a single experiment. However, this same strength creates difficulties. First, what does one do with the transcription data of a gene whose function(s) are unknown? Second, in most applications, hundreds—not hundreds of thousands—of genes are regulated. Why collect replicate data on thousands of genes not involved in the problem at hand? In one sense, a high-density microarray is a fishing expedition that identifies the important players. Subsequently, efforts may be focused on the complete, albeit smaller set of regulated elements.