Genomics and proteomics tools for the clinic

The sequencing of the human genome was only made possible by the massively parallel use of automated high-throughput technologies. These technologies have required the development and interfacing of new hardware and software in a way which would have been hardly conceivable only ten years ago. As a consequence, an unbroken trend to more 'industrialized science' is apparent. The wealth of information generated by intensive sequencing efforts is now being further exploited by using complex tools to comprehensively analyze complex systems at the DNA, RNA and protein level. A landmark innovation was the introduction of the biochip principle, best exemplified with the development of the DNA chip, mainly used for RNA expression profiling. The chip principle, together with miniaturization, has now become the dominating theme for a number of new genomics and proteomics technologies, culminating in the lab-on-a-chip concept which, in the next five to ten years, could advance at a comparable rate to that of computers over the last 50 years. Some of the new technologies are already used for comprehensive analysis of clinical samples in an attempt to describe disease and disease risk at the molecular level. However, all of these technologies are far from routine in clinical use and it is also too early to decide whether molecular fingerprints or signature profiles will have the diagnostic and prognostic power currently predicted.