Research progress on site-oriented and three-dimensional immobilization of protein

In today's post-genome era, the goals of research are geared toward understanding of the meaning of information in sequenced DNA, namely, understanding the functional characteristics of proteins encoded by genomes of living beings. Protein array technologies, particularly miniaturized high-throughput platforms such as micro- or nano-fluidic chips that allow parallel detection of thousands of proteins simultaneously are playing increasingly important roles as discovery tools in proteomics. These technologies are based on principles of molecular recognition and consist of a support surface, such as a glass slide, bead, or microtiter plate, to which an array of captured proteins is bound. However, immobilized proteins often lose their immunoactivity and suffer from low surface density, what results in inefficient signal response. In this review, we mainly provide an introduction on the research progress on site-oriented adsorption of proteins at solid-liquid interfaces, especially the three-dimensional immobilization of proteins, whose objective is to retain immobilized proteins in an active state at a great density.