Chemical strategies for immobilization of oligonucleotides

The development of oligonucleotide-based microarrays (biochips) is a major thrust area in the rapidly growing biotechnology industry, which encompasses a diverse range of research areas including genomics, proteomics, computational biology, and pharmaceuticals, among other activities. Microarray experiments have proved to be unique in offering cost-effective and efficient analysis at the genomic level. In the last few years, biochips have gained increasing acceptance in the study of genetic and cellular processes. As the increase in experimental throughput has posed many challenges to the research community, considerable progress has been made in the advancement of microarray technology. In this review, chemical strategies for immobilization of oligonucleotides have been highlighted with special emphasis on post-synthetic immobilization of oligonucleotides on glass surface. The major objective of this article is to make the researchers acquainted with some most recent advances in this area.