Patent ID: 7270954

Claim:
A microarray comprising a solid support surface comprising a plurality of reusable ligand-binding specific reaction sites comprising: a) a soft metal solid support, b) a heterobifunctional spacer comprising a flexible spacer arm and chemi- or physisorbed to said soft metal solid support via soft metal-soft base bonding, wherein said heterobifunctional spacer comprises 1) an anchor group comprising a soft base selected from the group consisting of succinimidyl-6-(biotinamido)hexanoate and dithiobis(succinimidyl-undecanoate), and 2) a reactive terminal group selected from the group consisting of an isothiocyanate and an isocyanate, and c) a peptide nucleic acid (PNA) linked to said reactive terminal group, wherein said flexible spacer arm allows the PNA to interact with its environment in a way which minimizes any steric hindrance, said specific reaction site surfaces comprising PNA solutions of different compositions at different sites on the solid support surface.