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A study based on DNA microarrays manufactured at the Barcelona Science Park’s Transcriptomics Platform offers new clues on cell differentiation

By 20 de June de 2007November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 20.06.2007

A study based on DNA microarrays manufactured at the Barcelona Science Park’s Transcriptomics Platform offers new clues on cell differentiation

A genome-scale scientific project for the study of the fly Drosophila melanogaster based on the use of DNA microarrays designed by the Group of Developmental Biology at the UB and manufactured at the SCT-PCB's Mixed Transcriptomics Platform has allowed investigators to observe how an organism's cells can know the outcomes and decisions that have been taken in embryonic development. The study, led by researchers Montserrat Corominas and Florenci Serras at the Department of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, has been published this month in the journal Genome Biology.

DNA microarrays are collections of microscopic samples of DNA commonly representing single genes and arrayed on a solid surface by attachment to matrices. DNA arrays for expression profiling, which are the arrays most commonly used in genetics, help to simultaneously monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes – even the copies of all the genes of a living being – or are used for comparative genomic hybridization.

At the present time, the Mixed Transcriptomics Platform (UB-PCB-IDIBAPS), which was created in order to further the area of gene expression, offers two of the methods most commonly used in DNA microarray analysis today. Directed by Pedro Jares, the Genome Unit at the Biomedical Research Institute IDIBAPS uses the technology commercialised by the company Affymetrix, while the SCT-UB Transcriptomics Platform, located in the Science Park’s Modular Building and directed by Lídia Sevilla, houses the installations and equipment to manufacture microarrays to order.

Using the design and method mostly prepared by the Group of Developmental Biology at the Department of Genetics at the UB, it is the Transcriptomics Platform which has manufactured the microarrays for expression profiling used for the article in the journal Genome Biology. The new method is now available to all the scientific community at the Mixed Transcriptomics Platform (UB-PCB-IDIBAPS).