High throughput technique description

Abstract Conductive polymers are established materials for development of chemical and biological sensors. Properties of these polymers are influenced by a number of different physical and chemical factors. Application of combinatorial and high-throughput techniques to development and optimization of chemo and biosensors is reviewed. Methods for addressable synthesis of conductive polymers and protocols for comprehensive description of chemosensitive properties are discussed. 

The second section is dedicated to the preparation for nucleic acid analysis. Specific examples of DNA and RNA analyses are presented, along with the description of techniques used in these procedures. Sections on high-throughput workstations and microfabricated devices are included. The third section deals with sample preparation techniques used in microscopy, spectroscopy, and surface-enhanced Raman. 

This chapter does not follow the usual format of this series rather, it provides the reader with a general overview of techniques available for manual and automated high-throughput peptide synthesis. We were trying to be more specific in the description of techniques with which we are familiar, and that we believe are relevant for scientists in laboratories tasked to produce large numbers of peptides. In the case of automated synthesizers, we attempted to point out the potential problems that the user of a particular machine may face after the eventual purchase of the instrument—and that will definitely not be mentioned by the sales agent. 

In addition, several articles on microwave-assisted parallel synthesis have described irradiation of 96-well filter-bottom polypropylene plates in conventional household microwave ovens for high-throughput synthesis [16-19]. One interesting article described the construction and use of a parallel polypropylene reactor comprising cylindrical, expandable reaction vessels with porous frits at the bottom [20]. This work presented the very first description of reaction vessels for microwave-assisted synthesis that may be useful for performing solid-phase synthesis using bottom-filtration techniques in conjunction with microwave heating. 

---