Tissue microarrays

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Abstract
The identification of disease-related genes is a major focus of modern biomedical research. Recent techniques, including array-based platforms for molecular profiling of disease tissues such as DNA arrays for expression profiling or matrix comparative genomic hybridization, allow for the comprehensive screening of the whole genome in a single experiment. Consequently, thousands of candidate genes have already been identified that may be linked to disease development and progression, and the process of lead discovery continues unimpeded. The evaluation of the clinical value of such leads is challenging because thousands of well-characterized tissue specimens must be analyzed. Tissue microarray (TMA) technology enables high-throughput tissue analyses to keep pace with the rapid process of lead discovery. With this technique, up to 1000 minute tissue samples are brought into an array format and analyzed simultaneously. The TMA technology is a fast, cost-effective, and statistically powerful method that will ... Tissue Microarrays The search for biomarkers indicative of disease state or its progression requires large studies for statistical power. DNA arrays are well suited in scale, but suffer from the disadvantage of measuring a surrogate of protein level. Moreover, archival, fixed tissue samples do not make good sources of cDNA for traditional microarrays. By contrast, tissue microarrays can take full advantage of the vast amount of archived clinical material already available. In an authoritative review, Simon et al. (p. 98) describe the enormous promise of tissue microarrays for applications from drug development to patient prognosis. The authors trace the development of the technology, discuss the issue of tissue representativity, and describe the many applications of the technique. The authors conclude with an analysis of the prospects for automated analysis of tissue microarrays. The result is a comprehensive treatment of a technique that can be expected to be a powerful tool for translational research.