On the Cover
January / February 2005
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Photo courtesy of
The Jackson Laboratory
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A highly stylized image of a microarray
pattern revealed using lasers, a special microscope and a camera. DNA
microarray technology offers a close-up look at the building blocks of
life. A microarray — up to half a million tiny spots of DNA on a
half-inch-square glass slide, silicon chip or nylon membrane — is a
scientific tool with which scientists can simultaneously analyze the
expression or "on switch" of essentially all the genes found in a
genome.
Determining how specific genes function
will help scientists better understand their role in disease
development. This technology is used by researchers in the Functional
Genomics Ph.D. Program, profiled in the story, "Inner Workings."
