Functional protein microarrays for pathway mapping

Functional protein microarrays present an important new tool that is ideally suited to the mapping of biological pathways. Almost every basic feature of pathways, from binary and multi-component molecular interactions to enzymatic activity, has now been recapitulated and studied using protein microarrays. The generation of microarrays comprising whole proteomes of organisms will enable this technology to make significant contributions towards our understanding of disease pathways. We will review recent developments in functional protein microarrays, with a focus on their use for pathway mapping.