Protein microarray (protein arrays or protein biochips) technology is a process of immobilizing numerous proteins on to a solid support and using miniaturized assays to describe protein interactions, that has been developed steadily in recent years. It is a powerful methodology, in a high-throughput format, to analyze thousands of known proteins in a single experiment. Protein microarrays are now an indispensable tool for proteomic applications, multi-parameter clinical diagnostic tests, and many other fields.
As a well-recognized partner in the drug development process, Creative Biolabs has launched a series of versatile microarray platform and offers three major types of protein microarrays to study protein function and construction of networks. The arrays containing customized sets of proteins, as well as array profiling services, are also available for our worldwide clients.
Microarray technology refers to the miniaturization of a large number of assays on one small plate. Protein microarray has been prevalently used to capture and measure proteins from biologic samples in a high-throughput style. Typically, a protein microarray consists of a small piece of glass or plastic coated with thousands of capture reagents matching specific proteins. This technology allows it possible to isolate and study many potential biomarker proteins for drug discovery. Protein microarrays can be miniaturized and arranged in a grid with tens of thousands of capture features, each specific for a given protein. Thus, they are considered a multiplexed device and can be tested for multiple markers simultaneously, which is essential for research, diagnostics, and monitoring disease states.
Fig.2 Biomarker identification using protein microarrays. (Zhu, 2012)
Protein microarray is an emerging technology that has been viewed to overcome the limitation of DNA microarrays. This tool is excellent for characterizing hundreds of thousands of proteins in a high-parallel and high-throughput fashion. At Creative Biolabs, we provide three major categories of protein microarrays to illustrate their applications in both basic and clinical research. Each array contains superior-quality purified proteins spotted onto the glass slide. Our robust protein microarrays and popular services contain items including but not limited to:
Fig.3 Fabrication of high-content functional protein microarrays. (Zhu, 2012)
Fabrication of protein microarrays remains many challenges in some critical aspects, particularly in producing proteins in a high-throughput way. At Creative Biolabs, we have established the following services to generate abundant amounts of proteins, which ensure the quality of the resultant protein microarrays.
Protein immobilization on a solid support is also crucial, following protein production. An ideal surface for array fabrication has to be capable of protein immobilization and preserving 3D conformation of proteins. Here, we provide several common surfaces for microarray fabrication as below.
System | Surface |
---|---|
Covalent immobilization | Aldehyde, Epoxy, NHS, Carboxylic Ester, etc. |
Adsorption | Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), Nitrocellulose membrane, Polystyrene |
Diffusion | Agarose/polyacrylamide Gel, Hydrogel |
Affinity capture | Ni2+-NTA, Streptavidin, Glutathione |
Metal | Gold, Silver, Steel, etc. |
In label-dependent detections, we have developed several types of labeling reagents, such as fluorescent dyes (Cy3, Cy5, and equivalents), enzymes, liposomes, and radioisotopes.
In label-free detections, no processes affect protein activity and a real-time measurement for the dynamics of protein interactions can be obtained. We’d like to introduce these detection methods, including surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR), imaging optical ellipsometry (OE), reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIFS), and oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OIRD) technique.
Protein microarrays have become a promising approach for a wide variety of applications, especially the identification of small molecule drugs. With rich experience and advanced technologies, Creative Biolabs offers multiple easily customizable protein microarrays to analyze hundreds to thousands of known proteins in proteomics and diagnostic fields. If you want more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Reference
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