Table 1.

Comparison of glycan microarray analysis of whole-influenza virus versus recombinant haemagglutinin protein

	Whole-virus assay	Recombinant HA assay
Biosafety requirements	BSL-2, 3 or 3+ (or requires inactivation)	None
Sample preparation	Days to weeks	∼1 month
Assay considerations	May be influenced by NA	No NA activity
Mutational analysis	Straightforward, but obvious biosafety issues with unknown viruses	Straightforward, and no biosafety concerns
Binding	High valency, high avidity	Low valency, HA binding sites weaker avidity (12 per complex)
Detection	Unknown as yet whether high valency and avidity will distinguish between weak and strong binders	Can distinguish between weak and strong binders
BSL, biosafety level; HA, haemagglutinin; NA; neuraminidase.