Microarray technology will undoubtedly have a profound impact on many avenues of biological and biomedical research. Gene chips provide a panoramic view of differences between healthy and diseased tissue and often reveal surprising molecular players. The different signature patterns can reveal the molecular mechanisms of disease, explore the role of different cell types, identify potential drug targets, develop new diagnostic tools, and assess the prognosis of patients. In microarray technology, scientists correlate gene expression patterns with biological and pathological assays to determine whether particular chemicals are harmful. Toxicologists also use gene-expression data to understand how particular toxicants affect the inner workings of the cell. Use of this technology increases the efficiency of testing compounds for toxicological or pharmaceutical action.
Applications of the DNA microarray hybridization include the important areas of gene expression analysis and genotyping for point mutations, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and short tandem repeats (STRs). It is also useful for molecular biological and genomic research, for pharmacogenomic research and drug discovery, infectious and genetic disease and cancer diagnostics, and forensic and genetic identification purposes. Additionally, microarray technology has been developed and applied to new areas of proteomic and cellular analysis [35].