As yesterday's genomics breakthroughs become today's common laboratory techniques, the cutting edge of biology is increasingly found at the level of the proteome. According to Zachary Zimmerman, Senior Research Analyst at Life Science Insights in Framingham, Mass., "The answer to most diseases will lie in the proteins, not in the DNA, so proteomics is going to be huge." Just as nucleic acid arrays contributed heavily to genome-wide gene-expression analyses, protein arrays already are contributing to the study of protein expression and function in the proteome.
A protein array is a set of proteins immobilized at defined positions on a surface – often a glass slide, nitrocellulose membrane, 96-well plate, or silicon wafer – that has been coated with a coupling reagent to ensure protein binding. (The immobilization surfaces may also be color-coded beads in liquid suspension. Mixtures of such beads are the logical equivalent of more conventional arrays, with coded ...
