Nondestructive quality control for microarray production.

The use of microarrays to monitor gene expression has become a standard research tool at both academic and industrial research institutions. Quality control of common printing defects during DNA deposition onto glass substrates is critical to maintaining data integrity and preventing the needless consumption of precious RNA, labeling reagents, and time. Here we demonstrate a nondestructive method for monitoring the quality of every spot on every chip of a microarray production run. We have identified many common manufacturing defects, while not perturbing the attachment of our oligonucleotide target to the substrate or altering further hybridization. This protocol is simple, fast, and inexpensive.