Lab-in-a-Tip: a multiplex immunoassay platform based on a self-assembled barcoded protein array
Yiran He, Min Jiang, Zhenlong Liang, Zhaoxu Luo, Jingyi Qin, Ye Shen, Yayun Gu, Xiaodong Ma, Hong Wang, Xin Li, Ying Shi, Yanhua Chen, Kefeng Pu, Jiong Li
Abstract
High throughput immunoassay is increasingly crucial for both scientific and clinical applications. Here we propose a “Lab-in-a-Tip” (LIT) concept to fabricate a pipette tip containing a high-density protein array and other essential reagents. The protein array is made by self-assembling digitally encoded microparticles inside the modified tip. Mounted on a robotic workstation, it automates liquid-handling steps. Notably, compared with Luminex, the current gold standard in multiplex immunoassays, such a design enables LIT to demonstrate multiple advantages in terms of analytical sensitivity, speed, and throughput. It detects analyte concentrations as low as fg/ml, representing a sensitivity improvement of two orders of magnitude over Luminex. Incubation time is reduced to 15 minutes from Luminex’s 210 minutes. Furthermore, LIT requires only 10 µl of sample, one-fifth of what Luminex needs. This makes LIT ideal for rapid diagnostics and studies with limited biological samples, greatly expanding its application scope. High-throughput immunoassay is crucial for scientific and clinical applications. Here, the authors introduce a multiplex immunoassay platform engineered by modifying a pipette tip with a self-assembled barcoded protein array. It outperforms the gold standard in sensitivity, speed, and sample volume.