Optimiser™ Microplate enables simultaneous multi-analyte quantitation using ultra-low sample volumes in a 2-hour assay: Validation of a Novel 10-Analyte Th17 Cell Panel (124.7)

Abstract Optimiser™ Microfluidic ELISA Plates combine microfluidics with 96-well architecture to offer dramatic improvements over conventional ELISA, such as 50fold-reduced sample volume, 2fold-reduced assay time, and ultra-high sensitivity, while still using conventional ELISA reagents. Optimiser™ ELISA Plates are compatible with existing pipetting systems (manual or automated) and ELISA plate readers. Furthermore, the surface area to volume ratio of each microfluidic reaction chamber represents a 50-fold increase when compared to standard plate microwells. The improvement in surface:volume ratio increases binding kinetics dramatically, enabling assays to be run in less than half the time of traditional ELISAs, and providing comparable sensitivity with as little as 2 microliter samples (i.e., 50fold less than required for conventional assay). A multi-analyte assay for detecting products of activated Th17 cells (e.g., IL-6, IL17A, IL-17AF, IL-17FF, IL-21, IL-22, IL-26, G-CSF, CCL20, TNF-α) is used to demonstrate that using only 25 microliter sample volume, the Optimiser™ ELISA can simultaneously measure 10 analytes (with sensitivity comparable to conventional ELISA) in a 2-hour assay, without the need for dedicated multiplexing instruments, multiplexing reagents, or bead-labeling chemistry. The entire 10-analyte assay procedure is fully automated and is run on a Tecan EVO100™ System.