37. PNA Encoding (PNA=peptide nucleic acid): From Solution-Based Libraries to Organized Microarrays
    J. L. Harris, N. Winssinger
    Chem. Eur. J. 2005, 11, 6792-6801

Microarrays have become an indispensable technology in post-genomic research and a number of strategies have been developed to immobilize analytes in the microarray format. This concept article describes a supramolecular preparation based on sequence specific hybridization of PNA. This approach allows the use of the libraries as mixtures in solution which can be converted to an organized microarray in one step by a self-sorting process.

Microarray-based technologies have attracted attention in chemical biology by virtue of their miniaturized format, which is well suited to probe ligand-protein interactions or investigate enzymatic activity in complex biological mixtures. A number of research groups have reported the preparation of surfaces on microarrays with specific functional groups to chemoselectively attach small molecules from libraries. We have developed an alternative method whereby libraries are encoded with peptide nucleic acid (PNA), such that libraries which exist as mixtures in solution self-assemble into an organized microarray through hybridization to produce readily available DNA arrays. This allows libraries synthesized by split and mix methods to be decoded in a single step. An asset of this method compared to direct spotting is that libraries can be used in solution for bioassays prior to self-assembly into the microarray format.

DOI : 10.1002/chem.200500305 

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