The paper <i>A fluorescence sandwich immunoassay for the real-time continuous detection of glucose and insulin in live animals</i> [1]:<p>> Here we show that multiple analytes can be continuously and simultaneously measured with picomolar sensitivity and sub-second resolution via the integration of aptamers and antibodies into a bead-based fluorescence sandwich immunoassay implemented in a custom microfluidic chip. After an incubation time of 30 s, bead fluorescence is measured using a high-speed camera under spatially multiplexed two-colour laser illumination.<p>> Incoming beads are first illuminated by a red laser, which interrogates the Cy5 fluorescence intensity indicating the glucose concentration. This is followed by illumination with a green laser that interrogates the R-PE fluorescence intensity, which measures the insulin concentration. We used an exposure time of 50 ms and acquired images every 100 ms.<p>> To allow for real-time analysis, RT-ELISA requires a continuous supply of reagents, which corresponds to approximately US$10.50 worth of reagents consumed for a 1-h run.<p>> The detection scheme will also need to be miniaturized to reduce its complexity, most notably with regard to the camera and other optical components. However, we believe that such miniaturization would be possible with integrated photonics and that further advances in these technologies could make RT-ELISA suitable for bedside patient monitoring.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-020-00661-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-020-00661-1</a>
I'd love to get one of these. I have been using a whoop to sanity check all my exercise routines with their recovery data. I feel like something like this could help me hone in on the perfect diet and lifestyle even better than a continuous glucose monitor.
Can somebody please explain the challenges associated with miniaturizing and speeding up the ELISA test?<p>On wiki [0] I see:<p>> In the most simple form of an ELISA, antigens from the sample to be tested are attached to a surface. Then, a matching antibody is applied over the surface so it can bind the antigen. This antibody is linked to an enzyme and then any unbound antibodies are removed. In the final step, a substance containing the enzyme's substrate is added. If there was binding the subsequent reaction produces a detectable signal, most commonly a color change.<p>What are the pain points in this process?<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELISA" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELISA</a>
Fascinating. Sounds like it would change a lot of the diagnostic tools for blood tests. Fingers crossed it works as easy as the document says and they can get a good price to market!
It’s cool to see a real lab-on-a-chip that works. I remember reading about these in college over a decade ago, and while they always seemed “cool” from an aesthetic standpoint, there was always a question of what could you actually do with it (i.e. how is the chip better than just basically mixing things in a test tube + centrifuge).
This is interesting but it's still invasive to the extent that it requires a blood sample. I think it would be very useful if it were possible to do some form of in vivo spectroscopy, probably either IR or NMR.<p>Does anyone know of any work being done in this area and what the challenges are ?