Development of a sensitive diagnostic multiplex platform based on digitally encoded microcarriers
In answer to the ever-increasing need in biomolecular research and clinical diagnostics to carry out many assays simultaneously in on tube, several microcarrier-based multiplex technologies (suspension arrays) have arisen in the past few years. Simultaneous detection of different target molecules that are present in one sample is possible by incubating the sample with a mixture of differently encoded microcarriers, each carrying another probe which can specifically interact with one of the targets. This means that each target will bind to a differently encoded microcarrier. When the targets are caught, several methods exist to label those 'positive' microcarriers. By means of this label, and by means of the code, it becomes possible to verify whether a target was caught at its surface, and which target was caught, respectively. Those multiplex measurements work quantitatively, because the more a target is present in the sample, the more targets will bind to their corresponding microcarrier. Five years ago, our research group proposed the use of spatial selective photobleaching, as an alternative method for the development of digitally encoded microcarriers, which were called 'memobeads'. It was suggested that this method could overcome the multiplexing limitations of existing technologies. The present study aimed to optimize the surface characteristics of t hose memobeads, and to verify whether they could then be applied to multiplex protein tests and nucleic acid tests. Furthermore, it was investigated in which way these memobead assays (and in general the assays performed with every kind of suspension arrays) could be improved to make them more efficient and sensitive.
Medicine and Health Sciences, (bio)analytical assays, diagnostics, memobeads, digitally encoded microcarriers
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