title: Better therapeutics through microarrays.
abstract: DNA microarrays are an integral part of the process for therapeutic discovery, optimization and clinical validation. At an early stage, investigators use arrays to prioritize a few genes as potential therapeutic targets on the basis of various criteria. Subsequently, gene expression analysis assists in drug discovery and toxicology by eliminating poor compounds and optimizing the selection of promising leads. Integral to this process is the use of sophisticated statistics, mathematics and bioinformatics to define statistically valid observations and to deduce complex patterns of phenotypes and biological pathways. In short, microarrays are redefining the drug discovery process by providing greater knowledge at each step and by illuminating the complex workings of biological systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Profiling, Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania 19486, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Gerhold
authors.forename: Roderick V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Gullans
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015195:Drug Design; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D010597:Pharmacogenetics / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014116:Toxicology / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004247:DNA