The benefits of DNA microarrays in fundamental and applied bio-medicine

DNA microarrays are new miniaturized tools allowing high-throughput measurement of various biological parameters. They are obtained after micro-robotic deposition or direct synthesis of DNA fragments on a two-dimensional surface. Based on this simple technology, several different types of DNA microarrays have been developed to answer various biological questions. DNA microarrays are mainly used for transcriptional profiling but they can also permit large-scale study of DNA variations, rapid investigation of chromosomal structure and a global identification of protein-binding sites on DNA. Moreover, a new type of DNA microarray, called cell array, has been recently developed for functional exploration of genomes. These different concepts of DNA microarrays and their potential applications in fundamental and applied bio-medicine will be discussed in this review.