Generation of a non-small cell lung cancer transcriptome microarray.
BACKGROUND
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. At present no reliable biomarkers are available to guide the management of this condition. Microarray technology may allow appropriate biomarkers to be identified but present platforms are lacking disease focus and are thus likely to miss potentially vital information contained in patient tissue samples.


METHODS
A combination of large-scale in-house sequencing, gene expression profiling and public sequence and gene expression data mining were used to characterise the transcriptome of NSCLC and the data used to generate a disease-focused microarray - the Lung Cancer DSA research tool.


RESULTS
Built on the Affymetrix GeneChip platform, the Lung Cancer DSA research tool allows for interrogation of ~60,000 transcripts relevant to Lung Cancer, tens of thousands of which are unavailable on leading commercial microarrays.


CONCLUSIONS
We have developed the first high-density disease specific transcriptome microarray. We present the array design process and the results of experiments carried out to demonstrate the array's utility. This approach serves as a template for the development of other disease transcriptome microarrays, including non-neoplastic diseases.
Almac Diagnostics Ltd, 19 Seagoe Industrial Estate, Craigavon, BT63 5QD, UK. Austin.Tanney@almacgroup.com
Austin
A
Tanney
Gavin R
GR
Oliver
Vadim
V
Farztdinov
Richard D
RD
Kennedy
Jude M
JM
Mulligan
Ciaran E
CE
Fulton
Susan M
SM
Farragher
John K
JK
Field
Patrick G
PG
Johnston
D Paul
DP
Harkin
Vitali
V
Proutski
Karl A
KA
Mulligan