Scientists believe that an unbiased analysis of antibody binding sites would provide significant insights into health and disease states. In this regard, many researchers have utilized programmable phage display libraries to detect novel autoantibodies. Phage display libraries have been used to characterize anti-viral immunity and profile allergen-specific Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies.
Even though protein microarrays are extremely useful for protein research, the high per-assay cost and numerous technical artifacts make them less user-friendly. Technologies such as Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Array (NAPPA) and single-molecule PCR-linked in vitro expression (SIMPLEX) are effective but not cost-effective.
