Microarray
Hey there! Have you heard of a tool called a "microarray"?
Imagine that you are playing with a bunch of different colored balls and you want to know which ones are red, which ones are blue, and which ones are green. You could take all the balls, line them up, and sort them into different piles by color, right?
Well, a microarray is kind of like that, but for really, really small things - like teeny tiny bits of genetic code called "genes".
Scientists use a microarray to figure out which genes are turned on and which genes are turned off in a living thing. They take a little piece of DNA from each gene and stick it onto a tiny glass slide in a very specific order.
Next, they take a sample of cells from the living thing they want to study and remove all the genetic material from those cells. Then, they mix that genetic material together with a special dye and pour it over the little glass slide with all the gene pieces on it.
The dye makes each piece of genetic material light up with a different color, depending on which genes are turned on or off. Then, the scientists can use a special machine to scan the slide and measure how much light each piece of genetic material gives off.
By looking at the pattern of colors that shows up on the slide, scientists can tell which genes are turned on and which ones are turned off in the living thing they're studying. This can help them understand all sorts of things about how the living thing works and why it does what it does.
And that's a microarray, in a (very small) nutshell!
Imagine that you are playing with a bunch of different colored balls and you want to know which ones are red, which ones are blue, and which ones are green. You could take all the balls, line them up, and sort them into different piles by color, right?
Well, a microarray is kind of like that, but for really, really small things - like teeny tiny bits of genetic code called "genes".
Scientists use a microarray to figure out which genes are turned on and which genes are turned off in a living thing. They take a little piece of DNA from each gene and stick it onto a tiny glass slide in a very specific order.
Next, they take a sample of cells from the living thing they want to study and remove all the genetic material from those cells. Then, they mix that genetic material together with a special dye and pour it over the little glass slide with all the gene pieces on it.
The dye makes each piece of genetic material light up with a different color, depending on which genes are turned on or off. Then, the scientists can use a special machine to scan the slide and measure how much light each piece of genetic material gives off.
By looking at the pattern of colors that shows up on the slide, scientists can tell which genes are turned on and which ones are turned off in the living thing they're studying. This can help them understand all sorts of things about how the living thing works and why it does what it does.
And that's a microarray, in a (very small) nutshell!
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