BIOCHEMISTRY:
Protein Arrays Step Out of DNA's Shadow
Robert F. Service
As technical obstacles yield, en masse protein testing is poised to take one of biochemistry's most exciting techniques into the heart of cellular chemistry. On page 1760 of this issue, researchers report creating arrays of over 10,000 proteins on a piece of glass just half the size of a microscope slide. They then used their arrays to study a variety of protein functions, including identifying members of the array that bind to other free-floating proteins and to small, druglike molecules.