摘要 : The last 10 years have seen microarrays go from being a nascent technology available only in a limited range ofresearch facilities to becoming a ubiquitous approach to expression profiling. Developments in microarray technol-ogy h... 展开 The last 10 years have seen microarrays go from being a nascent technology available only in a limited range ofresearch facilities to becoming a ubiquitous approach to expression profiling. Developments in microarray technol-ogy have allowed the content of arrays to increase to the point that complete transcriptomes can be assayed ona single array, whilst developments in RNA labelling technology have reduced the amount of RNA needed downto the point where single cell profiling is technically possible. Recently it has also become possible to generateexpression data from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded archival samples. With the range of samples that can nowbe successfully profiled by microarray analysis this should be a good time to be running a microarray core facility.However, the arrival of Next Generation Sequencers means that for the first time there is an alternate platformthat can potentially give a more complete picture of cellular expression than a microarray. Next GenerationSequencers are still in their infancy as a platform for expression profiling. Currently there are simply not enoughNext Generation Sequencers in operation to meet the level of demand for expression profiling that microarrayfacilities service, but more systems are constantly becoming available. Looking ahead it seems certain that someproportion of expression profiling work will move from microarrays to Next Generation Sequencers, so now isa good time to consider some of the factors that might affect how significant that switch will be. 收起