Developing rapid, point-of-care, multiplex detection for use in lateral flow devices

Immunoassays have been widely used in commercial, scientific and medical research for detection and quantification of analytes in complex mixtures. There is however a need for a point-of-care, multiplex diagnostic assays capable of providing rapid and quantitative measurements of analytes present in samples that are sufficiently simple to carry out without use of a laboratory or individuals trained in chemical analysis. We are developing a fluorescent lateral flow immunoassay platform to perform simultaneous, multiplexed detection of analytes in a complex fluid mixture along with instrumentation to optically quantitate the analytes in the sample. Our prototype imaging system is based on conventional 16-bit CCD optics, which enables the development of a rugged diagnostic instrument that can be further scaled down for point-of-care applications. We have compared protein microarrays with lateral flow assays (LFAs) to determine the sensitivity of each system for the measurement of distinct proteins in complex samples. We are pursuing the LFA platform such that it can easily be scaled to meet the requirements of any given screening application, and be implemented for use in a medical or surgical setting.