Microarray chips allow us to conduct many expression experiments in parallel to each other but they can be used only once as far as i know. Are there reusable microarray chips? Have people ever tried it? If there are, are they becoming more common? If people do not choose to use them even though they are in the market, what can be the reasons?
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As far as I am aware, there are no commercially available re-usable microarrays. The reason for this is most likely that the arrays are really sensitive and you run into the trouble with false positive signals. I have once seen a microarray which has been stripped and still delivered quite some signals in areas which had a strong signal before.
You have to make sure to strip all the hybridized samples from the chip without damaging the probes which are bound on the surface. I think the trade-off between "everything is off" and "some sample is still bound" is not good enough. Who wants to risk false positive signals and possibly retract publications on this basis? You may also loose weak signals which are hidden under false-positive signals.
