Optimizing scan parameters for antibody microarray experiments: accelerating robust systems diagnostics for life...

Microarray experiments are a centerpiece of postgenomics life sciences and the current efforts to develop systems diagnostics for personalized medicine. The majority of antibody microarray experiments are fluorescence-based, which utilizes a scanner to convert target signals into image files for subsequent quantification. Certain scan parameters such as the laser power and photomultiplier tube gain (PMT) can influence the readout of fluorescent intensities and thus may affect data quantitation. To date, however, there is no consensus of how to determine the optimal settings of microarray scanners. Here we show that different settings of the laser power and PMT not only affect the signal intensities but also the accuracy of antibody microarray experiments. More importantly, we demonstrate an experimental approach using two fluorescent dyes to determine optimal settings of scan parameters for microarray experiments. These measures provide added quality control of microarray experiments, and thus help to improve the accuracy of quantitative outcome in microarray experiments in the above contexts.