title: Establishment of cDNA microarray analysis at the Genomic Medicine Research Core Laboratory (GMRCL) of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Advances in molecular and computational biology have led to the development of powerful, high-throughput methods for analysis of differential gene expression, which are opening up new opportunities in genomic medicine. DNA microarray technology has been enthusiastically integrated into basic biomedical research and will eventually become a molecular monitoring tool for various clinical courses.
  
  
  METHODS
  As a core research facility of Chang Gung University (CGU) and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH), the Genomic Medicine Research Core Laboratory (GMRCL) welcomes investigators from every discipline to employ DNA microarray technology in the quest for knowledge of genomic medicine. The first tasks for GMRCL are to optimize the standard operating procedures (SOP) for each instrument and to assure the quality of every procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the first year after the establishment of the GMRCL at the CGMH, we tested and adopted procedures that were satisfactory for our purposes. These procedures included: replication of bacterial stocks, amplification of human DNA clones, annotation of each DNA clone, production of cDNA microarrays, validation of RNA quality and quantity, labeling of target specimens, competitive hybridization, scanning of slides, data analysis, and post-microarray validation of results. We present a summarization of the materials and procedures used at the GMRCL and discuss the reasons for using them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The information about the cDNA microarray analysis system at the GMRCL is compliant with the minimal information about a microarray experiment (MIAME) format. The information may be useful to both the investigators who are using this core facility and researchers at other institutes, who will establish their own in-house cDNA microarray systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Tzu-Hao
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yun-Shien
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: En-Shih
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wei-Hsiang
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Lung-Kun
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ding-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Hsueh
authors.forename: Min-Li
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Hsing-Shih
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying-Shiung
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic