Microarrays in Brain Research: Data Quality and Limitations Revisited

As predicted, in the post-genomic era microarray technology has a major impact on our understanding of complex gene expression patterns and circuit function in the brain. We increasingly appreciate that, due to the phenotypic and transcript complexity, brain transcriptome profiling data are multifaceted and are best interpreted in the context of the cellular diversity of the studied brain region. However, despite advances made over the past five years, biological interpretation of massive microarray datasets remains a significant challenge. Although we are becoming more efficient in separating "true" transcriptome differences from experimental noise, verification of microarray data and anatomical localization of expression changes to neuronal subpopulations will continue to be an integral part of brain microarray experiments.