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Collaborative research between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, Stuttgart, has resulted in a new printed biochip that allows cost-effective mass-production of peptide arrays. The technology has been awarded the Stifterverband Science Prize 2008.
Peptide arrays are essential for the development of new medical substances, diagnostics and therapeutics. Current peptide arrays have limited capacity as they fit a maximum of 10,000 peptides per glass slide, which makes it hard to identify pathogenic proteins in bacteria with over 100,000 proteins.
Stefan Güttler of the IPA said: “At present, peptide arrays are manufactured by a spotting technique that uses a robot to dab the individual amino acids onto a paper-like membrane. Trying to do this with a laser printer is something completely new.”
The printed biochip technology is a method that uses laser printing to layer amino acid particles onto a glass slide, allowing for up to 150,000 peptides to be detected on a carrier measuring 20 centimetres by 20 centimetres.
Because peptides consist of 20 different amino acids linked to form specific chains, DKFZ has provided 20 different bio-toners, which print the amino acids in a dry state onto a glass slide. Ralf Bischoff of the DKFZ described how dissolving the amino acids through heating the carrier allows the toner particles to melt and the amino acids to couple with the carrier.
The inventors of this technology estimate that manufacture is faster and 100 times as cheaply as conventionally produced peptide arrays, with each peptide costing a few cents as opposed to 5 euros.
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