UNS: Signal-Amplification for Instrument-Free, Multiplexed Immunoassay - a Generalized Platform for Biosening

CBET - 1510468 Lei, Yu<br/><br/>The PI has proposed a novel biological assay that can be visualized (instead of instrument) for detecting pathogenic bacteria and biomolecules that indicate disease state. If successful, it could be used in the food industry, water quality monitoring and medical diagnostics.<br/><br/>A modified Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assays (ELISAs) which would be visual (instead of an instrument) and is expected to have good sensitivity, simplified procedure, lower cost, and allows for the facile simultaneous detection of multiple targets. Intellectual Merit: A simple but potentially very powerful amplification and instrument-free biosensing technology based on visual height measurement with excellent simplicity, portability, sensitivity, and adaptability will be developed.<br/>In lieu of an enzyme the detection antibody is modified with self-assembled lipid-based nanoparticles (NPs). After a washing-step the assay tubes are loaded with a triblock polymer solution followed by dyed lipid-based NPs that self- aggregate. After the precipitation of dyed NP clusters by gravity, the visual height of dyed NPs clusters is expected to show concentration-dependent behavior, due to the difference in the surface-bound clusters resulting from targets captured by the conjugated antibody on the tube inner surface. By using multiple tubes, each coated with specific antibodies in series, multiple targets can be detected simultaneously. Broader Impacts: Positive research outcome will potentially impact positively on public health, especially for remote and low-resource regions. This project will also positively impact education of the graduate, undergraduate and high school students by integrating advanced nano-biosensing into their educational and laboratory training. Interaction with the general public (through Connecticut Science Center and focus conference sessions) and industry companies will enable broader dissemination of the results. Two new courses (Special topics in Bioanalytical Sensor and Nanostructure Characterization) will be offered to UConn students in Fall 2016. The graduate students to be recruited on this project will actively interact with UConn Tech Plaza to learn about entrepreneurship and spin off a start-up company if any promising IP emerges in this project.