Electrospray Deposition as a Method for Mass Fabrication of Mono- and Multicomponent Microarrays of Biological and Biologically Active Substances

Electrospray of protein and DNA solutions is currently used to generate ions for mass spectrometric analysis of these molecules. Deposition of charged electrospray products on certain areas of a substrate under control of electrostatic forces is suggested here as a method for fabrication of multiple deposits of any size and form. For example, multiple dots of protein, DNA, or other organic substances can be deposited simultaneously through an array of holes in a dielectric mask covering any slightly conductive substrate (membrane, wet glass, semiconductor, etc.). If every new substance is deposited after a shift of the mask with respect to the substrate, a multicomponent matrix is created under each hole. It is demonstrated that dots as small as 2−6 microns can be fabricated by such an electrospray deposition (ESD). It is also demonstrated that the ES-deposited proteins and DNA retain their ability to specifically bind antibodies and matching DNA probes, respectively, enabling use of the ESD fabricated matrixes in Dot Immuno-Binding (DIB) and in DNA hybridization assays.