Protein and lysate array technologies in cancer research

Capturing quantitative proteomic information provides new insights for enhancing the understanding of cancer biology. There have been several protein microarray formats, and each has an advantage depending on what is being detected. However, in contrast to nucleotide printing, the production of protein arrays generally requires the capability of handling viscous solutions, and the mishandling of various factors, such as temperature and humidity, adversely affect protein status. The requirement for such specifications is critical when increasing the throughput for monitoring a large number of samples for rigorous quantitation. In particular, a new solid pin arrayer has been extremely powerful when highly viscous cell lysates printed for high-density, "reverse-phase" protein arrays, and acquired data allows for theoretical models of protein signaling networks to be constructed. In this review, applications of currently available protein microarray technology to cancer research are discussed including the advantages of the new solid pin architecture for opening up powerful proteomic applications.