Gene expression profiling in drug discovery and development.

Recent advances in technology, especially the merger between molecular biology, automation technology and computer science, are rapidly changing the manner in which pharmaceutical companies will discover new drug targets and develop new therapeutic drugs. One example of such a merger between different disciplines has been the development of technology platforms, such as cDNA microarrays and oligonucleotide arrays, allowing the generation of comprehensive gene expression profiles in a previously insurmountable throughput. Hereby, the major limitation is currently shifting from the efficient generation of biological information to the extraction of biological knowledge. However, given the foreseeable developments in data mining technologies and diverse computational biology tools, it can be anticipated that this information will foster the effectiveness to develop new and hopefully better drugs.