High Throughput Microarray Printing and Imaging Methods to Develop new Bioactive Materials for Sensing and Small Molecule Screening

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My NSERC-supported research program will develop and utilize high throughput, microarray and microwell plate-based methods to synthesize and characterize advanced sol-gel based bioactive materials that will transform solid-phase assays used in diagnostics and drug discovery. These new materials will be used for printing biologicals (proteins, aptamers, cells) as microarrays, or to prepare monolithic bioaffinity columns that can be used for screening of complex mixtures or extracts. High throughput screening will be used to identify materials with desired properties (i.e., high bioactivity, low non-specific binding, appropriate porosity, etc) and will allow us to hone in on optimal materials more rapidly, while providing an abundance of data that will allow us to better understand and control the properties of our materials. Key objectives over the next 5 years are: (1) establishment and implementation of automated methods to allow high-throughput synthesis, screening and characterization of improved sol-gel materials with entrapped biomolecules, including new studies of how proteins, DNA/RNA aptamers and cells behave within sol-gel based materials; (2) development of a database of biointeface interactions (DBI) to aid in cataloging, mining and modeling of HT materials data; (3) use of advanced printing methods to prepare improved sol-gel based microarrays for new applications utilizing proteins, cells and aptamers, with characterization by high-throughput microarray imaging methods based on MALDI-MS, XPS, FTIR, SPR and fluorescence; and (4) in-depth studies to optimize sol-gel material properties for biosensing, affinity chromatography and immobilized enzyme reactors. This research will provide critical data to enhance our understanding of materials and optimize them for a given application. It will transform our understanding of the interface between surfaces and biological species (particularly cells), and will provide new insights into how to design such materials to optimize biomolecule properties. It will result in novel "bioactive" interfaces and new devices such as protein and reporter-gene cell microarrays for prognostics and diagnostics, new bioseparation media and new tools for small molecule screening.