Quantitative analysis using decreasing amounts of genomic DNA to assess the performance of the oligo CGH microarray

Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) is a technique for studying chromosomal changes in cancer. As cancerous cells multiply, they can undergo dramatic chromosomal changes, including chromosome loss, duplication, and the translocation of DNA from one chromosome to another. Chromosome aberrations have previously been detected using optical imaging of whole chromosomes, a technique with limited sensitivity, resolution, quantification, and throughput. Efforts in recent years to use microarrays to overcome these limitations have been hampered by inadequate sensitivity, specificity and flexibility of the microarray systems. The oligonucleotide CGH microarray system overcomes several scientific hurdles that have impeded comparative genomic studies of cancer. This new system can reliably detect single copy deletions in chromosomes. The system includes a whole human genome microarray, reagents for sample preparation, an optimized microarray processing protocol, and software for data analysis and visualization. In this study, we determined the sensitivity, accuracy and reproducibility of the new system. Using this assay, we find that the performance of the complete system was maintained over a range of input genomic DNA from 5 ug down to 0.15 ug.