Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a method used to determine the location of DNA binding sites on the genome for a particular protein of interest. This technique gives a picture of the protein-DNA interactions that occur inside the nucleus of living cells or tissues. Determining how proteins interact with DNA to regulate gene expression is essential for fully understanding many biological processes and disease states.

Microarray-based ChIP studies are restricted to a fixed number of probes
Currently, the most common method for genome-wide analysis of DNA-binding proteins is Chip-on-chip (ChIP-chip), which combines chromatin immunoprecipitation with DNA microarrays.  The major limitation of this hybridization-based method is that microarrays are restricted to a fixed number of probes, thereby introducing bias.

ChIP-Seq with the SOLiD™ System
SOLiD™ System-based ChIP-Sequencing (ChIP-Seq) overcomes the limitation of microarrays by combining chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with massively parallel DNA sequencing, offering a highly sensitive, hypothesis-neutral method to accurately characterize the protein-DNA interactions of an entire genome. Additionally, the SOLiD™ System’s flexible slide format allows you to analyze both normal and diseased samples in a single run.