Current advances in peptide and small molecule microarray technologies

Microarrays offer a compact solution for massively parallel screening. In recent years, microarrays have branched away from the exclusive pursuit of small molecule ‘hits’ in target centric screens, towards the sophisticated dissection of disease biology and comparative profiling of cellular states. This has led to innovative and instructive ways in which the platform may be deployed, providing new-found methods with which to harness the throughput achievable. Library design and diversity continues to drive success with peptide and small molecule microarrays. Newer synthesis and immobilization strategies extend the already wide repertoire of fabrication methods available. Herein we describe the latest advances in the small molecule and peptide microarray arena, which herald even more exciting breakthroughs in the coming decade.

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► Microarrays are rapid screening tools leveraging on miniaturization and automation.
► A wide range of tags and surfaces enable screening many small molecule classes.
► On-chip kinetics facilitates quantitative assessments of interactions en masse.
► SMMs are well established in ligand discovery and enzyme profiling.
► Newer applications include immunological screens and biomarker discovery.