Advances in protein microarray technology for protein expression and interaction profiling

Protein microarrays address a great demand for high-throughput protein analysis techniques. Because protein microarrays detect many proteins in parallel, are quantitative, and have minimal reagent and sample consumption requirements due to miniaturization, they are potentially powerful tools for applications in basic and applied biology. Advances in manufacturing, protein immobilization and detection methods have enabled high-throughput protein quantitation and interaction studies. Protein microarrays can be applied to protein function studies, screening the production of antibodies and recombinant proteins, discovery of proteins implicated in disease or that are potential drug targets, and rapid detection or diagnosis of disease. A remaining challenge for the full implementation of protein microarrays in the acquisition of large sets of high-affinity and highly specific protein capture reagents.