Epoxy Silane ——Protocol for DNA

The decision to use epoxy silane is frequently made by what you are interested in spotting and how you choose to attach to a surface. Epoxy silane slidesfunction by offering an epoxide ring that reacts with an amine group on thespotted material. Most proteins, as well as DNA, have available amine groupsthat covalently attach to the epoxide ring at high pH. Since these slides are'looking for' amine groups, we do not recommend the use of printing buffers thatmight also contain amines (such as Tris), since these will compete with thespotted material for attachment sites. If you are using a proprietary printingbuffer, you may want to check with the manufacturer.Whichever chemistry you require on a microarray slide (epoxy silane, aldehyde,aminosilane, poly-L-lysine), Thermo Fisher Scientific now offers the sameattachment chemistries on a new es surface. es can be described asmicroscopic mountains and valleys with uniformly coated functional groups.Arrayer spot-size is often controlled by the surface energy of the coating—hydrophobic coatings give smaller spot sizes, while hydrophilic coatings givelarger spot sizes. The benefit of es is more uniform spot size without altering your chemistry. The es surface will not affect the focusing or use of microarrayspotters and scanners because it is microscopic.The principles behind epoxy silane slidesThe epoxy silane slide surface provides available epoxide rings that react with anamine group on the spotted material. The DNA or protein can subsequently beattached covalently to theslide by incubating or by UV cross-linking. The epoxybond is probably the most robust attachment chemistry available to themicroarray scientist today. Thermo Fisher Scientific manufactures this productwithout the use of solvents or diluents that might leave a residue resulting in highbackground.