Southern, Edwin

The origin of the microarray or biochip can be traced to a seminal publication by Edwin Southern over 30 years ago. Southern described a method by which DNA could be attached to a solid support following electrophoresis and interrogated for sequences of interest by hybridization with a complementary DNA sequence (16). The complementary DNA sequence, termed a probe, was labeled with either a radioactive or a fluorescent marker and hybridized to the DNA target sample, which was immobilized on a sohd support, such as a nitrocellulose filter membrane. 

Robert (Bob) Matson, Ph.D., is a senior staff scientist in the Advanced Technology Center at Beckman Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, California. He has been involved in the development of both nucleic acid and protein array-based technology for the past 13 years. His initial introduction to array technology began in collaboration with Sir Edwin Southern in developing an in situ oligonucleotide array synthesis platform for the corporation. Later work by Dr. Matson and his research team produced some of the first plastic microplate-based microarrays. Beckman Coulter recently launched the pi te based upon the microplate "array of arrays" concept. 

Muhammad Sohail and Edwin Southern describe in their contribution a different process for the creation of oligonucleotide arrays. Subsequently, they used the arrays in the screening for effective antisense reagents. This study is fascinating because of its impact on the understanding of interactions between nucleic acids, an interesting research area even after 50 years of structural DNA analysis, and in view of its practical implications for applications in biotechnology and molecular medicine. 

This technique was given the name Western blotting in honor of Edwin Southern and the West Coast location of its invention [2]. 

---