Microarray Solutions Transform Functional Proteomics Workflows at ASU

Researchers at The Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, have invested in an HS 4800™ Pro automated hybridisation station and two PowerScanner™ units from Tecan for processing protein microarrays. Dr Joshua LaBaer, Director of the centre, explained: “We have adopted a unique approach to functional proteomics which involves printing the gene for the proteins on the slide and adding a cell-free extract that synthesises the proteins in situ. The proteins are made literally an hour before we test them.”

Dr LaBaer continued: “These instruments, our newest pieces of Tecan equipment, are real workhorses. The HS 4800 Pro runs by itself overnight and allows us to produce proteins in situ on the glass, wash them off, and even incubate them with samples, all in a single run, without any manual intervention at all. This instrument has done wonders in terms of reproducibility; we can do the same array on two different days and still get the same answer. The PowerScanners are also essential, with very good optics giving us strong signals. We run many slides repeatedly, which can be extremely tedious, and having reliable autoloaders on the PowerScanners has been very helpful.”

Dr LaBaer concluded: “In both cases, the devices were by far the best thing on the market. In the case of the PowerScanner, there was nothing out there with the same combination of good autoloading features, images and software. Other devices simply didn’t match the quality.”