Methods of profiling gene expression, protein or metabolite levels

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods of analysing gene expression, metabolite or protein levels, the use of such methods to generate distinctive profiles of a cell, and the use of such profiles in the diagnosis of disease and mode of action of novel compounds used in the treatment of a cell. These simplified methods of obtaining molecular profiles of a cell have the advantage that they allow the skilled man to produce a profile of the levels of a chosen class of molecules in a cell, which may be used to distinguish between different treatments or different cellular states, whilst being produced from fewer data than are typically used in the production of existing profiles.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to methods of analyzing gene expression, metabolites or protein levels, the use of such methods to generate profiles characteristic of cells, and the use of such profiles in the diagnosis of disease and in the analysis of the mode of action of novel compounds used to treat cells application. Background technique [0002] Technological advances in recent years have made it easy to measure a large number of molecules in cells simultaneously. This leads to the creation of complex maps of specific types of molecules in the cell, such as proteins, metabolites and mRNA. Typically, for each molecule of a selected class of molecules present in the cell, a signal is produced that correlates to the amount of that molecule present in the cell. Thus, maps of gene expression in cells are typically constructed from numerous independent measurements of the mRNA levels of individual genes. That is, expression profiles are constructed f...

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