Automatic transfer of polyacrylamide gels to protein chip plates for protein electroblotting

Protein chips are useful tools for profiling proteins and analyzing protein-protein interactions and post-translational modifications. In previous work, we developed a diamond-like carbon-coated stainless steel plate (DLC plate) as a novel protein chip plate. Gel-resolved proteins can be covalently immobilized on the surface of the DLC plate by electroblotting to produce a high-density protein chip. The proteins can then be identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) using the plates. The interactions of the immobilized proteins with other proteins, and their post-translational modifications, can also be analyzed. However, to improve the efficiency and reproducibility of analyses using DLC plates, it is important to automate these analytical processes. Therefore, we developed a system for automatically transferring gels from the gel electrophoresis glass plates to the DLC plates for electroblotting. This is an essential first step toward complete automation of the production of high-density protein chips for immobilizing gel-resolved proteins.