Microarray technology has revolutionised biomedical research because it enables not only the rapid determination of mRNA expression profiles and pan-genome SNP profiles but also because of increasingly powerful applications in the field of proteomics.Manufacture of the core component of the technology, namely the solid support itself (typically a glass slide holding thousands or million of probes), has been a challenge since the introduction of the technique some 10 years ago. The use of well understood and characterised manufacturing techniques is a pre-requisite for the production of high quality DNA microarrays. However microarray production techniques present multiparameter optimisation challenges that involve disciplines as varied as biochemistry, surface chemistry modification and micro-engineering. Technologies currently available allow the fabrication of an array with millions of probes per square centimetre.
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