ABSTRACT

Cytogeneticists are studying chromosomal aberrations and their related disease states; cancer researchers have validated correlations between carcinogenesis and genetic alterations in tumor cells [1]. These alterations involve allelic imbalances, manifested in the form of chromosomal copy number (CN) changes including ampli-cations, deletions, aneuploidy, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and microsatellite instability. These events often indicate the activation of oncogenes and/or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes (anti-oncogenes). Variations in the form of copy number polymorphisms (CNP) can also occur in normal individuals [2,3]. Identication of the loci implicated in these aberrations can generate anchor points that facilitate oncogenomic and toxicogenomic studies. High-density oligonucleotide micro arrays originally designed to facilitate the genotyping of a multitude of single nucleotide

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