Protein Crystallization

Protein crystallization is a key assay for structural studies of proteins. The protocols for crystallization of protein are challenging due to the stringent requirement for pure samples and control of environmental conditions during the crystallization process. Vapor diffusion using hanging drop is a preferred method for obtaining quality crystals with…

more

Buffers and Reagents

High-quality, ready-to-use buffers and reagents manufactured in ISO- certified facilities.

more
Grace Bio-Labs nitrocellulose microarray substrates
forward phase protein microarray
Reverse phase protein array

Protein Microarray Substrates

more

Grace Bio-Labs microarray surface chemistry is based on the well-known protein-binding properties of nitrocellulose. A range of different formulations have…

APPLICATIONS:

Antigen-Capture AssayAntibody Capture AssayCoronavirus Antigen ArrayEpitope-mappingBiomarker Discovery and ValidationImmunogen Discovery

DNA Microarray Substrates

more

Epoxy Microarray Slides provide a uniform substrate for a variety of DNA/RNA-based diagnostic applications.

APPLICATIONS:

DNA/Oligonucleotide Microarray ;  microRNA Microarray ;  Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Analysis ;  Gene Expression Profiling; 

Microarray Reagents

more

Grace Bio-Labs microarray regents have been specifically formulated to achieve the full potential of porous nitrocellulose, accelerating experimental design and…

APPLICATIONS:

Antigen-Capture Assay Antibody Capture Assay RPPA- Reverse Phase Protein Microarray Laser micro-dissection RRPA Epitope-mapping Biomarker Discovery and Validation Immunogen Discovery

NanoParticle Fluorescent Calibration Slide

more

Photostable nanoparticles arrayed on glass slides for calibration of fluorescence imaging systems and quantitative analysis.

APPLICATIONS:

Calibration of Microarray Scanners ;  Quantitative Microarray Analyses Microscope Focal Plane Adjustment;  Microscope Focal Plane Adjustment; 

ProPlates® Multi-Well Chambers

more

ProPlate® re-usable, multi-well chambers are available in a wide variety of formats to fit standard 1 x 25 x 75…

APPLICATIONS:

Microarray ;  Hybridization and Incubation;  ELISA;  PCR and NGS; 

CoverWell™ Incubation Chambers

more

CoverWell™ incubation chambers are reusable, easy to apply chambers that attach without the use of adhesive.  CoverWells™ enclose a large…

APPLICATIONS:

Reverse Transfection Microarray;  DNA Microarray;  In-situ hybridization;  Immunohistochemistry; 

Silicone Isolators

more

Silicone Isolators allow researchers to isolate specimens using removable hydrophobic barriers. They may be used to isolate cells grown in…

SecureSeal™ Hybridization Chambers

more

SecureSeal™ Hybridization Chambers are thin, silicone-gasketed chambers providing optimal surface-to-volume fluid dynamics for hybridization assays on large or multiple specimens…

HybriWell™ Sealing System

more

HybriWell™ Sealing System bonds securely to a microscope slide surface in seconds to confine small reagent volumes with samples and…

Hybridization and Incubation

more

Hybridization and incubation Seals ad Chambers from Grace Bio-Labs are ideally suited for in situ-hybridization assays. The adhesive seal of…

APPLICATIONS:

In-situ hybridization MicroarraysFluorescence In situ Hybridization (FISH)FRET (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer)

FastWells™ Reagent Barriers

more

FastWells™ are sticky, flexible silicone gaskets that form hydrophobic reagent barriers around specimens without messy adhesives or special slides. Gaskets may…

FlexWell™ Incubation Chambers

more

FlexWell™ incubation chamber silicone gaskets form wells on slides using clean release adhesive to isolate up to 16 specimens per…

APPLICATIONS:

Protein MicroarrayHybridizationIncubation

HybriSlip™ Hybridization Covers

more

HybriSlips™ are rigid, light-weight, thin plastic coverslips that minimize friction and facilitate uniform reagent distribution during incubation steps which require…

ProPlates®

more

ProPlates® were specifically designed to enable automated robotic liquid handling. Two main configurations are available: The ProPlate® Microtiter Plate is comprised…

APPLICATIONS:

ProteomicsProtein Microarrays;  Protein expression analysis;  Antibody profiling cDNA and oligonucleotide arrays

Silicone Isolators™ Sheet Material

more

Silicone isolator™ sheet material allows researchers to create their own removable hydrophobic barriers to isolate specimens. Where additional sealing is…

APPLICATIONS:

Protein and DNA arrays ;  Immunohistochemistry;  Fluorescence In situ Hybridization (FISH) ;  Biopolymers and hydrogel formulation ;  Cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) ;  Microwave crystallization ;  Ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) ;  Tissue ingeneering;  Live cell lithography” (LCL); 

CultureWell Removable chamber slide 8 well Catalog #: 103542

Microscopy Reagents

more

Grace Bio-Labs microscopy reagents are manufactured in ISO-certified facilities to ensure the highest quality and consistency.

Imaging Spacers

more

Imaging spacers are ultra-thin adhesive spacers which peel-and-stick to coverglass or microscope slides to confine specimens without compression. Layer multiple…

APPLICATIONS:

Imaging;  Microscopy;  High-temperature single-molecule kinetic analysis;  Anti‐Stokes Raman scattering microscopy; 

CoverWell™ Imaging Chambers

more

CoverWell ™ imaging chambers are designed to stabilize and support thick and free-floating specimens for confocal microscopy and imaging applications.…

APPLICATIONS:

Confocal microscopy Imaging Tissue and Cell staining ;  High Resolution Microscopy ;  Live-cell imaging ; 

CoverWell™ Perfusion Chambers

more

CoverWell ™ perfusion press-to-seal covers form water-tight, multiwell cell incubation or cytochemistry chambers when pressed to coverslips or microscope slides.…

APPLICATIONS:

Single molecule spectroscopy Live-cell imaging Microscoscopy

FastWells™ Reagent Barriers

more

FastWells™ are sticky, flexible silicone gaskets that form hydrophobic reagent barriers around specimens without messy adhesives or special slides. Gaskets may…

APPLICATIONS:

Microscopy Fluorescence In situ Hybridization (FISH) Single-molecule fluorescence analysis ;  Immunohistochemistry ; 

MultiSlip™ Coverglass Inserts

more

MutliSlip™ inserts with 8 (18mm x 18mm) or 15 (12mm x 12mm) No. 1.5 German glass coverglass per insert are…

APPLICATIONS:

High resolution microscopy Fluorescent imaging Immunohistochemistry ;  Cell Culture; 

SecureSeal™ Adhesive Sheets

more

These adhesive sheets are made using the same SecureSeal™ adhesive as is used to make HybriWell™ and SecureSeal™ Incubation Chambers.  Thin,…

APPLICATIONS:

Imaging ;  Tissue and Cell staining ;  High Resolution Microscopy; 

SecureSlip™ Silicone Supported Coverglass

more

SecureSlip™ Silicone Supported Coverglass is affixed to a thin microscopically transparent silicone base which secures it to culture vessels by…

Imaging and Microscopy

more

Imaging seals and chambers from Grace Bio-Labs offer a selection of tools for cell/tissue staining for high quality results in…

APPLICATIONS:

Tissue and Cell stainingHigh Resolution MicroscopyLive-cell imaging

CultureWell Removable chamber slide 8 well Catalog #: 103542

Cell Culture Reagents

more

Grace Bio-Labs microscopy reagents are manufactured in ISO-certified facilities to ensure the highest quality and consistency.

CultureWell removable chamber slide

CultureWell™ Removable Chamber Slide

more

CultureWell- removable chamber slide allows the cultivation and analysis of cells directly on a borosilicate microscope slide.

APPLICATIONS:

Fluorescence microscopy ;  Confocal microscopy ;  Cell differentiation and transfection;  Immunohistochemistry ;  Immunofluorescence;  Immunostaining;  Tissue and cell staining ;  Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Microscopy; 

CultureWell™ MultiWell Chambered Coverslips

more

CultureWell™ chambered coverglass products consist of removable and reusable, non-cytotoxic silicone gaskets secured to number 1.5 German coverglass. Chambered coverglass…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell Culture Fluorescence applications In-situ hybridization Immunostaining

CS16-CultureWell™ Removable Chambered Coverglass

more

CS16 CultureWell™ removable chambered coverglass is a 16-well chambered coverglass cell culture vessel, with 2 x 8 format with standard…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell CultureFluorescence applicationsIn-situ hybridizationImmunostaining

CultureWell™ Coverglass Inserts

more

Each CultureWell™ coverglass insert is comprised of four chambered coverglass, assembled in a disposable frame placed in a standard 86mm…

APPLICATIONS:

High resolution microscopy Fluorescent imaging Immunohistochemistry

CultureWell™ Reusable Gaskets

more

Gaskets are ideal for forming wells on glass microscope slides or in polystyrene dishes. Gaskets are non-sterile and may be…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell CultureHigh resolution microscopyFluorescent imaging Immunohistochemistry

CultureWell™ Silicone Sheet Material

more

CultureWell™ clear silicone sheet material allows researchers to create their own removable hydrophobic barriers to isolate specimens. They may be…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell CultureHigh resolution microscopy Fluorescent imagingImmunohistochemistry

MultiSlip™ Coverglass Inserts

more

MutliSlip™ inserts with 8 (18mm x 18mm) or 15 (12mm x 12mm) No. 1.5 German glass coverglass per insert are…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell CultureFluorescent imaging Immunohistochemistry

SecureSlip™ Silicone Supported Coverglass

more

SecureSlip™ Silicone Supported Coverglass is affixed to a thin microscopically transparent silicone base which secures it to culture vessels by…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell CultureImmunofluorescence assayMicroscopy

CultureWell™ ChamberSLIP 16, Non-Removable Chambered Coverglass

more

CultureWell™ NON Removable Chambered Coverglass, 16 Well, No. 1.5 German borosilicate Coverglass. Product consists of cell culture vessels, with a…

APPLICATIONS:

Cell Culture Fluorescence applicationsSmall volume incubation Immunostaining

Silicone Wound Splints

more

Wound splints are constructed of silicone and include suture sites for increased precision in affixing on or within an animal…

Silicone Isolator Sheet Material

more

Silicone isolator™ sheet material allows researchers to create their own removable hydrophobic barriers to isolate specimens. Where additional sealing is…

APPLICATIONS:

Protein and DNA arrays ;  Immunohistochemistry ;  Fluorescence In-situ Hybridization (FISH) ;  Biopolymers and hydrogel formulation;  Cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) ;  X-ray scattering ;  Microwave crystallization ;  Ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) ;  Tissue engineering Live cell lithography (LCL); 

CultureWell Silicone Sheet Material

more

CultureWell™ clear silicone sheet material allows researchers to create their own removable hydrophobic barriers to isolate specimens. They may be…

APPLICATIONS:

Lorem Ipsum ;  Lorem Ipsum;  Lorem Ipsum; 

PEPTIDE MICROARRAYS

Peptides are short chains of amino acids and are distinguished from proteins generally by size-with peptides having fewer than 50-60 amino acids. The use of peptides in microarrays has several advantages over arrays of full-length proteins: for small amounts as needed in microarrays, peptides can be chemically synthesized more economically and efficiently than purification of proteins from biological sources, and peptide arrays may have a longer shelf life that arrays of larger proteins. Furthermore, peptides offer a high degree of specificity, usually, a single epitope compared to larger proteins.

The two main applications of protein arrays are for monitoring immune response and profiling enzyme binding sites. Peptides are used to generate highly specific antibodies to discrete epitopes, enabling the distinction between similar or isotypic proteins. In a typical immune response, there are ‘immunodominant’ peptide sequences that may be part of larger proteins that can efficiently stimulate an immune response. Thus peptides are often screened in vaccine development studies of the immune response to pathogens (Gaseltsiwe et al., 2010) as well as identification of antibodies used for diagnosis of infection (Maksimov et al., 2012).  Another advantage of peptides is their use to identify specific sites of protein-protein interactions that can identify discrete protein structures (as in enzyme binding sites)  for drug targets. For both of these applications, peptide microarrays offer the ability to economically screen a large number of peptides in a single experiment.

Recently peptide arrays have been used to identify cell modulators (Khan et al., 2010). In these experiments, cells are incubated over a peptide microarray, and the array is analyzed for cell adherence or differentiation associated with specific spots. Biologically active peptides required for stem cell growth, differentiation, cell adhesion, or other activation of cell activity have been identified with this technique. Thus peptide arrays may help identify potential therapeutic peptides, a growing class of pharmaceuticals including hormones such as insulin (Lax and Meenan, 2012).

There are disadvantages to peptide microarrays when compared to full protein microarrays, mainly the relatively low affinity of peptide-protein interactions, potentially resulting in false-negative results and lower sensitivity for detection. Additionally, peptides alone do not bind well to glass or polymer substrates and so most peptide arrays are manufactured using a chemical linker to covalently bind the peptides to the substrate. Covalent attachment of the peptide limits the concentration of a peptide within a spot based on the density of the linkers, and may also interfere with its orientation and bio-recognition, again raising the potential for limited sensitivity and false-negative results.

Use of Grace Bio-Labs products in Peptide microarrays:

Incubation chambers from Grace Bio-Labs, including the HybriSlip and ProPlate, provide excellent results with peptide microarrays. The incubation chamber is an important parameter that is often overlooked when performing microarray experiments. The ideal chamber should allow for sufficient sample mixing during the assay incubation and wash steps and should minimize the volume of sample required. Active mixing has been shown to significantly affect assay signal and uniformity.

Coverslips generally allow for the lowest sample incubation volumes and, but do not allow sample mixing during incubation.  If the use of a coverslip is necessary for your particular assay, we recommend the use of Grace Bio-Labs HybriSlip™ over conventional glass coverslips. In addition, Grace Bio-Labs has developed incubation chambers that facilitate incubations for a wide range of sample volumes with various The Pro-Plate® chamber from Grace Bio-labs is excellent for most microarray applications on slide or plate format.

Nitrocellulose Films slides are not the best choice for peptide arrays due to the nature of their protein binding. The binding of biomolecules to nitrocellulose occurs through combined weak intermolecular forces, primarily hydrophobic and Van der Waals forces. Peptides likely do not provide enough opportunities for these interactions to create a strong bond, and thus are generally difficult to detect on nitrocellulose film. For proteins greater than 20 kD in molecular weight,  the advantages of porous nitrocellulose include non-covalent attachment that does not disrupt the three-dimensional structure and bioactivity of the protein. In addition, nitrocellulose film has tremendous binding capacity compared to other two- and three-dimensional surfaces (for a complete review, see the Oncyte Guide to Protein Arrays on this website).   This advantage is lost on small peptides.

Gaseltsiwe et al., Peptide Microarray-Based Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Epitope Binding to HLA-DRB1 0101, DRB1 1501 and DRB1 0401, Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, 2010: 17(1) 168-75. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812096/

Maksimov et al., Peptide Microarray Analysis of In Silico-Predicted Epitopes for Serological Diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Humans, Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, 2012:  19(6), 865-74. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370440/

F. Khan, et al., Strategies for cell manipulation and skeletal tissue engineering using high-throughput polymer blend formulation and microarray techniques. Biomaterials, 2010, 31, 2216-2228. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961209013453?via%3Dihub