Patterned and switchable surfaces for biomaterial applications

Andrew Hook – Patterned and switchable surfaces for biomaterial applications1.4. Application of patterned and switchable surfaces – MicroarraysRecent years have seen the development of many advanced biomedical devicesthat have been useful for the study, advanced manipulation and application ofbiomolecules. Such devices have proved to be valuable tools for solving manybiologically based problems, particularly in the field of medicine. Examples includemicroarrays, advanced drug delivery systems, biosensors and scaffolds for tissueengineering [3, 4, 6, 8]. Advanced manipulation of biomolecules requires surfaces ormaterials with the ability to adsorb, desorb, bind or prevent adsorption ofbiomolecules in localised regions combined with the ability to switch between theseprocesses on demand or upon activation by a defined stimulus. A number of studieshave been conducted in this field, with the main interest being in high-throughputDNA or protein manipulation and concurrently in controlling cell adhesion onmicroarray substrates. [15, 17, 66, 99]. With the completion of the human genomeproject has come the challenge of elucidating the function of the vast amount ofgenomic information within any single person’s genotype. This has led to theemergence of three primary types of genomic analysis tools: protein microarrays,DNA microarrays and cell microarrays. The key advantage of microarray technologyis the ability to conduct high-throughput studies with small amounts of analyte,enabling the rapid, inexpensive examination of genomics, proteomics or geneexpression [118]. Cell microarrays offer an additional advantage in their ability toanalyse the expression of genes and the function of proteins in a living cell where allthe machinery is present to ensure correct function enabling the high-throughputvalidation of tens of thousands of gene and protein targets [119].1-41