Electrospraying solutions of substances for mass fabrication of chips and libraries

Abstract

A method of fabricating deposits of non-volatile substances, including biomacromolecules, in the form of spots and filing on a substrate surface by electrospray, where the deposits are used to determine the interaction of the deposited non-volatile substances to other substances. Also included in this method is the mass fabrication on a single chip of an array of single and multicomponent microsamples.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A dry deposit of a non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substance formed on a substrate, wherein said dry deposit retains biological function and/or activity, has a thickness ranging down to a monolayer, has a homogeneity of thickness not larger than ±10% and contains molecule clusters with a size between 5 nm and 50 nm.  
     
     
         2 . The dry deposit of a non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the molecule clusters are densely packed but not completely coalesced, and said dry deposit of a non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substance has intercluster channels sufficiently penetrable by ligands.  
     
     
         3 . The dry deposit in accordance with  claim 1  which is formed on a substrate by electrospraying a solution of a non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substance.  
     
     
         4 . The dry deposit of a non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substance in accordance with  claim 1  which is formed as a film.  
     
     
         5 . A sample comprising a substrate, and a plurality of dry deposits of different non-volatile biologically functional and/or biologically active substances electrosprayed on said substrate, wherein each of said dry deposits is in accordance with the dry deposit of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         6 . The sample in accordance with  claim 5 , wherein said electrosprayed dry deposits of different substances are formed at a density of two to more than 200,000 deposits per square inch.