Expression profiling in brain disorders and beyond.

Large scale expression profiling studies provide a wealth of data that even after stratification by sophisticated biostatistical procedures leave the researcher more or less puzzled and helpless. This report is meant to encourage molecular biologists facing compounding gene lists resulting from expression profiling studies to understand them as intellectual challenges that require the researchers' solid scientific experience plus a good deal of curiosity. Three examples from expression profiling investigations on distinct aspects of brain inflammation are covered here. They show that even without good software programs it is possible to come up with reasonable biological hypotheses to be evaluated in subsequent more detailed experiments.