Agilent 244,000-feature microarrays represent a five-fold increase in density compared with our previous microarray series. The dramatic increase in genomic coverage lets researchers use the superior performance of Agilent arrays in a growing number of high-resolution genomic applications.
SurePrint technology allows as many as 8 arrays to reside on a single slide, allowing experiments to range from a genome-wide view to more focused studies. Researchers can now design ever-larger, more powerful microarray experiments very cost effectively.
While Agilent offers a wide range of catalog microarrays, they can also be easily customized to enable the widest possible range of experimentation. Using Agilent eArray, an easy-to-use web-based application, researchers can rapidly design custom microarrays in a secure online environment at no additional cost. Agilent supports a variety of formats, probes, genomic applications, and species, from which researchers can determine the right combination of options to meet specific experimental needs. Once a custom design has been completed, Agilent SurePrint inkjet technology ensures rapid manufacturing, with delivery in less than two? weeks, anywhere in the world.
In Situ Synthesis Printing Process
Both catalog and custom microarrays are manufactured using a proprietary non-contact industrial inkjet printing process, in which oligo monomers are deposited uniformly onto specially-prepared glass slides. This in situ synthesis process prints 60-mer length oligonucleotide probes, base-by-base, from digital sequence files. The precise inkjet process enables the delivery of extremely small, accurate volumes (picoliters) of the chemicals to be spotted. Figure 1 highlights four steps in the process, and a short animation shows the process in action.
Standard phosphoramidite chemistry used in the reactions allows for very high coupling efficiencies to be maintained at each step in the synthesis of the full-length oligonucleotide (Figure 2). Precise quantities are reproducibly deposited “on the fly.” This engineering feat is achieved without stopping, to make contact with the slide surface and without introducing surface-contact feature anomalies, resulting in consistent spot uniformity and traceability. In addition, multiple microarrays can be printed simultaneously in a single manufacturing run.
Figure 1. These four images communicate the general mechanism for oligo synthesis via inkjet printing. A: the first layer of nucleotides is deposited on the activated microarray surface. B: growth of the oligos is shown after multiple layers of nucleotides have been precisely printed. C: close-up of one oligo as a new base is being added to the chain, which is shown in figure D. A short animation presents the process dynamics in action.
Figure 2. The general cycle of oligo synthesis via phosphoramidite chemistry. The process is repeated 60 times.
Real Time Quality Control
Agilent’s real time quality control inspection system verifies chemical deposition at each step in the process to minimize or eliminate feature drop-out and premature truncation of the oligonucleotide probe. With Agilent's unique in situ process, oligonucleotides of 60 bases in length can be synthesized to create high-quality, fast-turnaround custom microarrays.