Combinatorial Peptide Microarray Synthesis Based on Microfluidic Impact Printing

In this Research Article, a novel inkjet printing technique, micro impact printing (MI printing), is applied for the first time to combinatorial peptide microarray synthesis on amine functionalized microdisc arrays through standard Fmoc chemistry. MI printing shows great advantages in combinatorial peptide microarray synthesis compared with other printing techniques, including (1) a disposable cartridge; (2) a small spot size (80 μm) increases array density; (3) minimal loading volume (0.6 μL) and dead volume (<0.1 μL), reduce chemical waste; and (4) multiplexibility of 5 channels/cartridge and capacity of multiple cartridges. Using this synthesis platform, a tetrapeptide library with 625 permutations was constructed and then applied for the screening of ligands targeting α₄β₁ integrin on Jurkat cells.