08 Sep 2000

From today's Science: Researchers have built a microarray designed to study the interactions of thousands of proteins simultaneously, helping to uncover their function. As more and more genomes are sequenced, these protein microarrays will play a large role in deciphering these genetic codes and understanding how the genes function. The microarray designed by Gavin MacBeath and Stuart L. Schreiber fixes proteins on a smooth, flat glass microscope slide in a way that preserves their folded structure. Since the slide keeps these structures intact, with all sides of the proteins able to interact with other proteins or molecules, the microarray can be loaded with thousands of proteins and used to screen for protein-protein interactions, to identify the protein targets of small molecules, and to identify enzyme targets. (From Science press release.)