From microarrays to mechanisms of brain development and function

Microarray technology provides a powerful approach to understand complex biological systems. The most common application of microarray technology is to document gene expression profiles of all genes within a genome in response to specific conditions such as disease, drug application, or genotype. One result of this technology is the ability to ascribe activities to genes with unknown functions - such rationale is the basis behind 'functional genomics'. This approach is particularly well-suited to studies of the brain because roughly one third to one half of all genes in vertebrate genomes are expressed in the brain. However, less than half of such genes have any defined function. While a large number of studies have applied microarray technology to the brain, few studies have followed up the expression profiling approach with functional characterization of the genes identified. In this review, I highlight recent research that reflects the initial promise of functional genomics in the brain. I focus on neural differentiation with particular emphasis on synapse development.