New analytical tools for studying autoimmune diseases.

Protein microarrays with immobilised proteins on their surface are new analytical tools to overcome the current limits with respect to sample volume and throughput. They have a great potential as well with respect to multiplexing of complex samples, as a research tool and in diagnostics. Based on recent advances in this technology, new applications for protein microarrays in studying autoimmune diseases were described. Required tools for bioinformatical analysis of protein microarrays concerning normalisation, clustering and classification methods are discussed. The huge potential of this technology as well as future requirements such as protein microarray based diagnostics are presented.