Signalling-specific microarrays were chosen as an initial route to identifying signalling pathways that may be stimulated early in HSV-1 infection, and more precisely, by virion binding. The Signal Transduction PathwayFinder cDNA array from Superarray incorporates 96 targets covering 19 associated signalling pathways, in addition to two negative controls corresponding to pUC18 plasmid DNA and a 'blank' spot, as well as four positive controls representing the housekeeping genes for GAPDH, beta actin, cyclophilin A and ribosomal protein L13a.