Molecular Biology: Gene Expression Techniques and Cancer

Learn about gene expression analysis techniques and their applications in diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

What you’ll learn
Gene and its components
What is gene expression?
Introduction to gene expression techniques
Techniques for mRNA expression analysis
Introduction to hybridization based methods
Northern blot
RNA-FISH
DNA microarray
Introduction to PCR based methods
RT-PCR
Real time qRT-PCR
Introduction to sequencing based techniques
Sanger method
High-throughput sequencing technology
Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE)
RNA sequencing
Applications of gene expression analysis
What is cancer?
Oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes
Challenges in understanding cancer genetics
Techniques used to study cancer
Targeted therapy for cancer

Requirements
Basic knowledge of biology and molecular biology
Interested in learning latest technologies

Description
The field of molecular biology has a profound impact in life science investigation. The development of more and more sophisticated experimental techniques in molecular biology with a broad, interdisciplinary applicability have stimulated research and progress in almost all the disciplines of life science. The rationality and approach of scientific experimentations have changed and allowing revolutionizing discoveries not only in molecular biology but also in biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, cell biology, and genetics. Reserachers can choose suitable techniques based on their usefulness, objectives and the financial and temporal resources available to the them. Many molecular biology techniques have extensively been used in the study of gene expression.

Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product (mRNA) that enables it to produce end products (protein), and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect.

The technique