Protein Microarray - Challenges

Challenges

Despite the considerable investments made by several companies, proteins chips have yet to flood the market. Manufacturers have found that proteins are actually quite difficult to handle. A protein chip requires a lot more steps in its creation than does a DNA chip.

Challenges include:

1. Finding a surface and a method of attachment that allows the proteins to maintain their secondary or tertiary structure and thus their biological activity and their interactions with other molecules.
2. Producing an array with a long shelf life so that the proteins on the chip do not denature over a short time.
3. Identifying and isolating antibodies or other capture molecules against every protein in the human genome.
4. Quantifying the levels of bound protein while assuring sensitivity and avoiding background noise.
5. Extracting the detected protein from the chip in order to further analyze it.
6. Reducing non-specific binding by the capture agents.
7. The capacity of the chip must be sufficient to allow as complete a representation of the proteome to be visualized as possible; abundant proteins overwhelm the detection of less abundant proteins such as signaling molecules and receptors, which are generally of more therapeutic interest.