Impact of Microarray Technology in Influenza Virus Research and Diagnostics

Microarrays are arrangement of biomolecules on a solid surface like glass slide. Based on the principle of homology, any target material (e.g. RNA, DNA, proteins etc.) can be detected on the basis of complementarity/homology with the spotted probes [1]. As thousands of probe molecules can be spotted on a single slide it is a high-throughput technique for detection and analysis of nucleic acids or proteins under various physiological, developmental and disease conditions. The type and sequence of the probes spotted on the array determines its application. For example, DNA microarrays are used for gene expression analysis whereas antibody based arrays are used for detection of specific proteins. With the development in this technology, study and analysis of living cells and tissues are also possible on microarrays [1,2].