Please cite this article in press as: Mogoutov, A., et al. Biomedical innovation at the laboratory, clinical and commercial interface: A new method for mapping research projects, publications and patents in the field of microarrays. Journal of Informetrics (2008), doi:10.1016/j.joi.2008.06.005 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model JOI-58; No. of Pages 13 Journal of Informetrics xxx (2008) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Informetrics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/joi Biomedical innovation at the laboratory, clinical and commercial interface: A new method for mapping research projects, publications and patents in the field of microarrays Andrei Mogoutov a , Alberto Cambrosio b,∗ , Peter Keating c , Philippe Mustar d a Aguidel, Paris, France b Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada c Département d’Histoire, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada d Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, Paris, France article info Article history: Received 26 May 2008 Accepted 30 June 2008 Keywords: Microarrays Biomedical innovation Triple-helix University–industry–government relations Publications Patents Research projects Text-mining Network analysis Visualization abstract Using the example of microarrays, one of the constitutive technologies of post-genomic biomedicine, this paper introduces a method for analyzing publications, patents and research grants as proxies for “triple-helix interfaces” between university, industry and gov- ernment activities. Our method creates bridges that allow one to move seamlessly between publication, patent and research project databases that use different fields and formats, and contain different information. These links do not require pre-defined categories in order to search for correspondences between sub-topics or research areas in the three databases. Finally, our results are not restricted to quantitative information but, rather, allow one to carry out qualitative investigations of the content of research activities. Our approach draws on a combination of text-mining and network analysis/mapping software packages. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper is part of a larger project focusing on the development of one of the emergent technologies of contemporary biomedicine: microarrays, also referred to as biochips, gene chips and so on. A single DNA microarray contains thousands of short DNA sequences arrayed on a solid surface. Compared to previous molecular genetic approaches, a microarray experi- ment involves the simultaneous analysis of many hundreds or thousands of genes, as opposed to single genes, thus making microarrays a tool of choice of the post-genomic era. As a result, the number of articles based on microarray technology has grown exponentially during the last decade, from less than 200 in 1999 to over 6000 in 2005, for a cumulative total of approximately 30,000 articles in 6 years. These articles are not confined to experimental reports: an increasing number of publications describe clinical applications of microarrays (e.g., Harris & Horning, 2006; Perkel, 2005; Quackenbush, 2006; Simon & Wang, 2006; see Keating & Cambrosio, 2004 for an initial analysis). The growth of commercial activities is equally impressive: the annual compounded growth rate of the microarray market between 1999 and 2004 has been estimated at 63% (Constans, 2003), and the 2006 revenues of the two major companies in the field, Affymetrix and Illumina, were, ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: andrei@aguidel.com (A. Mogoutov), alberto.cambrosio@mcgill.ca (A. Cambrosio), keating.peter@uqam.ca (P. Keating), philippe.mustar@ensmp.fr (P. Mustar). 1751-1577/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2008.06.005