The generic term biomaterial refers to any biological material used in an experiment. Biomaterial is subdivided in 4 components, biosource, sample, extract and labeled extract. The order used in presenting those entities is not innocuous as it represents the sequence of transformation a source material undergoes until it is in a state compatible with the realization of a microarray hybridization. This progression is actually mimicked in the BASE menu again to insist on this natural progression.
- Biosources correspond to the native biological entity used in an experiment prior to any treatment.
- Samples are central to BASE to describe the sample processing. So samples can be created from other samples if user want to track sample processing event in a finely granular fashion.
- Extracts correspond to nucleic acid material extracted from a tissue sample or a cell culture sample.
- Labeled extracts correspond to nucleic acid materials which have undergone a marking procedure using a fluorescent or radioactive compound for detection in a microarray assay.
BASE allows users to create any of the these entities fairly freely, however it is expected that users will follow the natural path of the laboratory workflow.
![[Tip]](../../gfx/admonitions/tip.gif) |
Tip |
|---|---|
It is highly recommended that you have read Section 6.3, “Working with items” before continuing with this chapter. |