This experiment investigated reducing the cost of microfluidic immunoassays. Magnetic microbeads are used in these assays to increase the efficiency of immunoassays, but they also raise the cost. This experiment aims to reduce the number of magnetic beads necessary by using electrowetting in conjunction with the beads. Single and parallel plate electrowetting devices were tested individually an...

BACKGROUND Immunoassays are widely used in clinical laboratories for measurement of plasma/serum concentrations of steroid hormones such as cortisol and testosterone. Immunoassays can be performed on a variety of standard clinical chemistry analyzers, thus allowing even small clinical laboratories to do analysis on-site. One limitation of steroid hormone immunoassays is interference caused by c...

The accurate measurement of hormones is the pivot of modern endocrinology. Although tracing its roots to ancient writings, the modern scientific discipline came into existence after a series of mid-20th century Nobel Prizewinning achievements in identifying and measuring hormones. Arguably the most decisive step was the invention of immunoassay in 1959 (1), originally for peptide hormones but e...

BACKGROUND Laboratory tests for routine drug of abuse and toxicology (DOA/Tox) screening, often used in emergency medicine, generally utilize antibody-based tests (immunoassays) to detect classes of drugs such as amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates, and tricyclic antidepressants, or individual drugs such as cocaine, methadone, and phencyclidine. A key factor in assay sensitivit...

Detection of small molecules (hapten molecules), such as food contaminants, environmental pollutants, disease factors, drugs and so on, is an area with great significance. Immunoassay, as a simple, rapid and cost-effective detection system, is widely used for the detection of low molecular weight analytes in varied matrix. However, the number of commercial available immunoassay kits for hapten ...

Immunoassays are indispensable for research and clinical analysis, and following the emergence of the omics paradigm, multiplexing of immunoassays is more needed than ever. Cross-reactivity (CR) in multiplexed immunoassays has been unexpectedly difficult to mitigate, preventing scaling up of multiplexing, limiting assay performance, and resulting in inaccurate and even false results, and wrong ...

Autoantibodies directed to chromatin components date back to the discovery of the LE cell and the LE cell phenomenon circa 1950, and subsequent evidence that major components of that reaction were chromatin components and histones in particular. Over time, immunoassays ranging from ELISA and line immunoassays to more modern bead-based assays incorporated histone and DNA mixtures, purified histo...

Despite ongoing concerns regarding its clinical application, mass spectrometry (MS)-based steroid assay represents a promising tool in endocrine research. Recent studies indicate that monitoring the blood levels of individual sterols provides improved diagnostic insight into hyperlipidemia compared with immunoassays routinely used practice. Hypercortisolism and hyperaldosteronism can also be ea...