ChIP-on-chip technology
is used to help identify elements in genomes.
Scientific studies can be conducted in vivo, or in a living organism as opposed to a partial or dead organism. ChIP-on-chip combines chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with microarray technology (chip) to study certain in vivo interactions.
ChIP
ChIP-on-chip technology refers to an immunoprecipitation technique used to investigate the interaction between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and proteins in a cell. Immunoprecipitation uses an antibody that binds to a protein to precipitate, or form a solid during a chemical reaction, a protein antigen out of solution. An antigen refers to a molecule or substance that triggers the production of an antibody in an immune system. Antibodies are a kind of protein used by an immune system to identify and block, or neutralize, foreign objects.
Chip
Chip, or microarray technology, consists of DNA microarrays comprised of thousands of series of DNA oligonucleotids, or short nucleic polymers. These polymers contain specific DNA sequences, called probes. DNA microarrays contain tens of thousands of probes, enabling many genetic tests to be performed simultaneously.
Goal
ChIP-on-chip technology is used to investigate in vivo interactions between DNA and proteins. The goal of ChIP-on-chip is to localize protein binding sites that may facilitate the identification of functional elements in genomes, or the combination of genes and DNA that expresses an organism's hereditary information.
Tags: ChIP-on-chip technology, Chip Chip, ChIP-on-chip technology used, elements genomes, immune system