The Use of Biochips in Neurology and Psychiatry

Abstract

In the light of recent advances in sequencing, which is becoming increasingly available, the microarray technology has partly assumed a complementary and application role. The last two decades, however, brought into application a genuine microarray approaches and technologies, especially population (VIP^TM) chips, enabling one to cost-effectively screen populations of tens of thousands of individuals (from humans to microorganisms) and thus effectively generate solutions for personalized medicine as well as multi-patient studies and therapies of neurodegenerative diseases. The paper summarizes basic and advanced contemporary microarray platforms and biomarkers useful for the research and diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases including the microarray state of the art population (VIP^TM) chips. Since the development and function of the nervous system is highly dependent on the products of gene expression, individual genotype and phenotype, the described diagnostic tools will likely contribute to a highly demanded elucidation of the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic solutions for neurodegenerative diseases.