Protein Microarray Technologies for Detection and Identification of Bacterial and Protein Analytes

Protein-based microarrays is a novel, rapidly evolving proteomic technology with great potential for analysis of complex biological samples. The technology will provide miniaturized set-ups enabling us to perform multiplexed profiling of minute amounts of biological samples in a highly specific, selective, and sensitive manner. In this review, we describe the potential and specific use of protein microarray technology, including both functional protein microarrays and affinity protein microarrays, for the detection and identification of bacteria, bacterial proteins as well as bacterial diseases. To date, the first generations of a variety of set-ups, ranging from small-scale focused biosensors to large-scale semi-dense array layouts for multiplex profiling have been designed. This work has clearly outlined the potential of the technology for a broad range of applications, such as serotyping of bacteria, detection of bacteria and/or toxins, and detection of tentative diagnostic biomarkers. The use of the protein microarray technology for detection and identification of bacterial and protein analytes is likely to increase significantly in the coming years.