Quantification of Small Molecules Using Microarray Technology

Small molecule detection poses special problems during analysis whether hormones in a clinical setting or pesticides from environmental monitoring. Traditional analysis involves procedures like high-pressure liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, or mass spectrometry, or a combination of the three. Microarray procedures have recently evolved into a technique capable of replacing many of these assays, utilizing the strong and specific binding of a binder (e.g., an antibody) to a given target, even in a quantitative manner. A higher sensitivity can be obtained using microarrays were shown, even without the concentration of the sample beforehand. The sensitivity is high enough for monitoring most clinically relevant markers and current regulatory pesticide levels. The microarray technique has additionally parallelism in sample analysis. The same sample can be analyzed for many targets at the same time, and under the same conditions. In the present protocol pesticide detection by microarray analysis is presented.