Basis of differentiation | Microarray | NGS |
Definition | Microarray is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface, which is used to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes simultaneously | NGS is a non-Sanger-based high throughput DNA sequencing technique which generates millions or billions of DNA strands to be sequenced in parallel |
Interactions with antigen | Micorarray is based on hybridization that is composed of a set of known targets | NGS is based on synthesis which uses DNA polymerase to integrate nucleotides and does not rely on information from previously known targets |
Applications | Microarrays are primarily used for detecting chromosomal copy variants (deletions and duplications), and gene expression profiling | NGS has a wider range of applications such as whole-genome sequencing, RNA sequencing, whole-exome sequencing |
Level of Resolution | Microarrays display moderate resolution, allowing the detection of large genomic alterations | NGS displays a much higher resolution, and is capable of detecting small-scale variations such as single-nucleotide variants and small insertions |
Cost | Microarray technology is typically less expensive than NGS | NGS is more expensive due to the high cost of sequencing instruments and reagents |