Manchester: Protein chips for diagnostics

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Scientists at Manchester University in the UK have developed a new and fast method for making functional nanoscale protein arrays that can hold tens of thousands of proteins simultaneously.

The Manchester team of Lu Shin Wong, Jenny Thirlway and Jason Micklefield note that the technical challenges of attaching proteins in a reliable way have previously held back the widespread application and development of protein chips. Existing techniques for attaching proteins often result in them becoming fixed in random orientations, causing them to become damaged and inactive.

Current methods also require proteins to be purified first, which means that creating large arrays is hugely costly in terms of time, manpower and money.

The researchers have engineered modified proteins with a tag, which makes the protein attach to a surface in a highly specified way and ensures it remains functional. The attachment occurs in a single step in just a few hours and requires no prior chemical modification of the protein of interest, or any additional chemical steps.

Micklefield, from the School of Chemistry, said, “DNA chips have revolutionised biological and medical science. For many years scientists have tried to develop similar protein chips but technical difficulties associated with attaching large numbers of proteins to surfaces have prevented their widespread application.”

“The method we have developed could have profound applications in the diagnosis of disease, screening of new drugs and in the detection of bacteria, pollutants, toxins and other molecules.” The research was published in August in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The Manchester researchers are part of consortium also involving the universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Glasgow, in a £ 3.1 million project to develop the protein nanoarrays. These will be much smaller than existing micro arrays and would allow thousands more protein samples to be placed on a single chip, reducing costs and vastly increasing the volume of data that could be collected.