ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION High-throughput protein analysis methods have advanced scientific research in areas such as the identification of disease-related proteins or the study of protein function. For example, the efficient testing of binding interactions between proteins by high-throughput yeast two-hybrid technology enabled the generation of comprehensive protein-protein interaction maps of yeast [1] and Helicobacter pylori [2]. Similarly, the capability of two-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis to separate and quantify thousands of proteins has facilitated the identification of proteins that are implicated in disease, as in a study that found differentially expressed proteins in squamous cell carcinoma [3]. Much research has been devoted to the development of additional methods that would enhance the current high-throughput protein analysis art. Protein microarrays have great potential to meet this demand, shown by recent work demonstrating the feasibility of this tool for the highly parallel and sensitive quantitation of proteins in complex biological samples [4]. The aim of this chapter is to survey current approaches to protein microarray technology and to focus on methods that are the most practical to implement, with the broad goal of promoting the wider use of the technology for biological studies.
