Signal Processing Aspects of Real-Time DNA Microarrays

Data acquisition in conventional fluorescent-based microarrays takes place after the completion of a hybridization phase. During the hybridization phase, target analytes bind to their corresponding capturing probes on the array. The conventional microarrays attempt to detect presence and quantify amounts of the targets by collecting a single data point, supposedly taken after the hybridization process has reached its steady-state. Recently, so-called real-time microarrays capable of acquiring not only the steady-state data but the entire kinetics of hybridization have been proposed in [1]. The richness of the information obtained by the real-time microarrays promises higher signal-to-noise ratio, smaller estimation error, and broader assay detection dynamic range compared to the conventional microarrays. In the current paper, we study the signal processing aspects of the real-time microarray data acquisition.