Existing protein arrays involve the tedious and lengthy process of expressing proteins in living cells followed by purifying, stabilizing, and spotting the samples. This process is a bottleneck in the preparation of the arrays. Moreover, functionally active proteins require careful manipulation, and the less that is needed the better. Our approach to developing a protein array, a Nucleic Acid-Programmable Protein Array (NAPPA), replaces the complex process of spotting purified proteins with the straightforward and much simpler process of spotting plasmid DNA. The system could produce any desired protein from synthesized DNA placed on the chip. It is another step in making protein production and engineering and biotechnology in general faster and cheaper.

The firm has simulated long-term storage equivalent to 13 years at room temperature, by applying higher temperatures than samples would normally endure. Such storage costs 33% as much as freezing the samples would. And when a sample is needed for analysis, you just add water, à la Sea Monkey. The market for this sort of thing is potentially huge. In contrast with the impression given by “CSI”, a popular crime series, DNA analysis is not something that takes a glamorous technician a few minutes in a moodily lit room. The FBI alone has a backlog of more than 200K unprocessed DNA samples from convicted criminals (85% of the samples it has collected during the past 6 years). This number has almost doubled in the past year, yet it may grow even faster in the future since what was once a procedure required only for sex offenders has now become obligatory for a range of felons from murderers to drug-addicts. Moreover, starting next year, both the federal authorities and a number of states will cast an even wider net by collecting DNA from everyone they arrest (as now happens in Britain). That will swell the haul of samples by at least 500K specimens a year.

a way to conserve biological material by drying. to revert, just add water.