Technology, large-scale gene expression

Large-scale gene expression studies, especially microarray technologies, have rapidly become a significant part of bioinformatics. There are many excellent sites focusing on microarray databases and tools for data analysis. The following sites are simply some examples. 

As was the case for most other cytokines, medical appraisal/use of IL-2 was initially impractical due to the minute quantities in which it is normally produced. Some transformed cell lines, most notably the Jurkat leukaemia cell line, produces IL-2 in increased quantities, and much of the IL-2 used for initial characterization studies was obtained from this source. Large-scale IL-2 production was made possible by recombinant DNA technologies. Although the IL-2 gene/cDNA has now been expressed in a wide variety of host systems, it was initially expressed in E. coli, and most products being clinically evaluated are obtained from that source. As mentioned previously, the absence of glycosylation on the recombinant product does not alter its biological activity. 

The advent of recombinant DNA technology has allowed the isolation of genes and expression of proteins that are found in biologic tissues in exceedingly small quantities. This has permitted large-scale production of enzymes such as tissue plasminogen activator (i.e., tPA, alteplase) that cannot be extracted from tissues in quantities required for therapeutic use. Table 9.2... 

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