Protein Microarray - Applications

Applications

There are five major areas where protein arrays are being applied:

• Diagnostics -

The detection of antigens and antibodies in blood samples; the profiling of sera to discover new disease biomarkers; the monitoring of disease states and responses to therapy in personalized medicine; the monitoring of environment and food.

• Proteomics -

Protein expression profiling i.e. which proteins are expressed in the lysate of a particular cell.

• Protein functional analysis -

The identification of protein-protein interactions (e.g. identification of members of a protein complex), protein-phospholipid interactions, small molecule targets, enzymatic substrates (particularly the substrates of kinases) and receptor ligands.

• Antibody characterization -

Characterizing cross-reactivity, specificity and mapping epitopes.

• Treatment development -

The development of antigen-specific therapies for autoimmunity, cancer and allergies; the identification of small molecule targets that could potentially be used as new drugs.