Creation of a functional heterogeneous vesicle array via DNA controlled surface sorting onto a spotted microarray

Membrane protein microarrays are expected to play a key role in the future of drug screening and discovery. The authors present a method for the creation of functional heterogeneous vesicle arrays via DNA controlled surface sorting. Complexes of streptavidin and biotinylated DNA are spotted onto a biomolecule- and cell-resistant surface of biotinylated poly(L-lysine)-grafted-poly(ethylene glycol). Two kinds of vesicles functionalized with either the membrane-binding protein annexin A5 or loaded with bovine serum albumin, are tagged with DNA, mixed together, and guided to predefined spots on the surface. The authors show that the spotted complexes remain active and selective and that the background is resistant towards nonspecific adsorption of the vesicles and the proteins.