The Cell MicroArray (CMA) platform provides extremely helpful information to screen for the effects of molecular targets on cell function. While genomic sequencing and extensive gene expression profiling have contributed and continue to generate extensive information on the structure, sequence variation and expression levels of human genes, the specific cell function of these genes remains a bottle-neck problem for high-throughput investigation.

CLM can become a powerful tool to study genomic-scale cell-based analyses of gene function.  

Technically, cells will be fixed, suspended in agarose and embedded in paraffin to create a paraffin block. A tissue macroarrayer will be used to remove 0.6 mm cores from each cell block and to transfer in a recipient paraffin block. Sections obtained from this array will be used to perform immunohistochemical analysis to evaluate a number of cell function parameters (i.e. DNA damage, proliferation, differentiation and more).

Taken together the three platforms will allow a better use of resources, samples and overall processing costs with the potential to rapidly identify markers with diagnostic and therapeutic implications in human disease.