Microarray Model

Last Tuesday (April 2nd), my mentor was out of town, so I did not go to RPI. However, my mentor gave me a project to work on for the week! We are working on taking concepts involved in our research and turning them into hands-on craft projects for children in grade school through high school. My project is to come up with a craft demonstration of how a microarray works. A microarray is a glass slide that usually contains nucleotide or amino acid probes that bind certain molecules. My concept is to use Velcro to demonstrate the binding of the printed peptide propes to molecules in the solution the microarray is exposed to. In our research, we use amino acid probes to make a microarray that consists of  56 peptides, each in a 3 by 3 matrix. For my demonstration, I am planning to use cardboard to represent the glass slide of the microarray. For the peptide probes, I am planning to use adhesive circles of Velcro. Some of the Velcro circles will be the hook side, and some will be the loop side. For the binding molecules, I will use Styrofoam spheres that have one kind of Velcro, hook Velcro for example, attached. These "molecules" will then bind to some of the "peptide probes," but not to others. To simulate the coating of the microarray, the "slide" will be put in a box, or "petri dish," and the "molecules" will be poured in. The box will then be moved in circular motions like it is on a rotator. After being "coated," the excess balls will be pored out of the box, and only the bound "molecules" remain attached to the microarray.

We also discussed having a second part to the activity using a "mixture" with varying sizes of molecules to demonstrate epitope mapping. Overall, we hope to use this demonstration to aid learning about microarrays, protein interfaces, purification of solutions, and peptide engineering.