摘要:
A method and system for monitoring the feature-extractability of microarrays by integrating control-feature blocks, or reference pattern blocks within a microarrray. The embedded control features comprise an array of pattern blocks, or reference pattern, in which each pattern block is composed of a set of microarray features arranged in a specific pattern of low-intensity and high-intensity features. Positive control features are designed to generate high-intensity signals following exposure of the microarray to a sample solution, and negative control features are designed to generate no signal or a low-intensity signal. The pattern blocks may be visually inspected to determine the feature extractability of a microarray prior to undertaking full, automated feature extraction, or may select a feature-extraction method based on an analysis of the reference pattern.