2005 APS March Meeting
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2005;
Los Angeles, CA
Session S7: Gene Chips
2:30 PM–4:54 PM,
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
LACC
Room: 408B
Sponsoring
Unit:
DBP
Chair: Ned Wingreen, Princeton University
Abstract ID: BAPS.2005.MAR.S7.1
Abstract: S7.00001 : Gene Chips: A New Tool for Biology
2:30 PM–3:06 PM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
David Botstein
(Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544)
The knowledge of many complete genomic sequences has led to a
``grand unification of biology,'' consisting of direct evidence
that most of the basic cellular functions of all organisms are
carried out by genes and proteins whose primary sequences are
directly related by descent (i.e. orthologs). Further, genome
sequences have made it possible to study all the genes of a
single organism simultaneously. We have been using DNA
microarrays (sometime referred to as ``gene chips'') to study
patterns of gene expression and genome rearrangement in yeast and
human cells under a variety of conditions and in human tumors and
normal tissues. These experiments produce huge volumes of data;
new computational and statistical methods are required to
analyze them properly.
Examples from this work will be presented to illustrate how
genome-scale experiments and analysis can result in new
biological insights not obtainable by traditional analyses of
genes and proteins one by one.
For lymphomas, breast tumors, lung tumors, liver tumors, gastric
tumors, brain tumors and soft tissue tumors we have been able, by
the application of clustering algorithms, to subclassify tumors
of similar anatomical origin on the basis of their gene
expression patterns. These subclassifications appear to be
reproducible and clinically as well as biologically meaningful.
By studying synchronized cells growing in culture, we have
identified many hundreds of yeast and human genes that are
expressed periodically, at characteristically different points in
the cell division cycle. In humans, it turns out that most of
these genes are the same genes that comprise the ``proliferation
cluster,'' i.e. the genes whose expression is specifically
associated with the proliferativeness of tumors and tumor cell lines.
Finally, we have been applying a variant of our DNA microarray
technology (which we call ``array comparative hybridization'') to
follow the DNA copy number of genes, both in tumors and in yeast
cells undergoing adaptive evolution during hundreds of
generations of growth in continuous culture. These studies
suggest a basic similarity in mechanism between adaptive
evolution in yeast and tumor progression in humans.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2005.MAR.S7.1