The use of DNA microarrays to assess clinical samples: the transition from bedside to bench to bedside

The advent of gene array technology brings the ability to classify disease states to the molecular level by examining changes in all mRNAs expressed in cells or tissues. Comparing changes in gene expression patterns between normal and diseased cells and/or tissues has elucidated unique subsets of genes identifiable to a specific disease. Already, new subclassifications of specific cancers have been discovered, belying that genomic profiling can uniquely distinguish a specific disease state and tissue of origin. This technology bestows the ability to examine global changes occurring in a cell or tissue(s), thereby allowing the elucidation of alterations in dysregulated biological, biochemical, and molecular events leading to disease states such as diabetes, hypertension, infertility, obesity, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis. Furthermore, genomic profiling will lead to new molecular targets for the development of drug therapeutics. Futuristically, one could envision personalized patient therapies based upon identification of specific aberrant signaling pathways that can be targeted for drug therapy.