Purification of High-Complexity Peptide Microarrays by Spatially Resolved Array Transfer to Gold-Coated Membranes

摘要

Arrays of small molecules on functional solid supports are important tools in modern research. With them a high number of compounds can be simultaneously screened for interactions with a sample. It is an ongoing challenge in chemistry and material sciences to steadily increase the number of compounds per area of the solid support. Regarding the natural complexity of proteins and peptides, these molecules are a prime example of where high-throughput methods are needed to increase the screening efficiency. However, the synthesis of complex protein and peptide arrays is demanding because natural proteins and peptides are composed of at least 20 different amino acids implying a high combinatorial diversity. Efforts have been taken to synthesize peptide arrays by lithographic methods. However, this approach is still not marketable due to expensive equipment, nonstandard building blocks, labor-intensive protocols, and low synthesis efficiencies. In fact, the first practicable and fully combinatorial approach to produce