Near-infrared fluorescence detection of antigen-antibody interactions on microarrays

The remarkable progress in genome sequencing projects has shifted modern biology interests from virtual bioinformatic descriptions of genomes to a postgenomic focus on complex proteomes. To investigate protein behavior from the broad perspective of understanding the complexity of whole organisms, this fundamental transition requires new concepts to replace individual protein studies by high-throughput assays. Different methods, such as two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, yeast twohybrid assays, mass spectrometry, and protein arrays, have been successfully exploited to analyze prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteomes. However, protein array technology has the advantages of being able to detect interactions directly with proteinaceous and nonproteinaceous molecules (including nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and small ligands) and to monitor various parameters, like relative concentration, binding affinity, and post-translational modification of proteins. It thus provides the unique possibility of analyzing proteomes and developing various applications for biomedical purposes.