Highly Sensitive Hand-Held Device for Quantitative Multiplex Protein Analysis Using Time-Resolved Assay

The point of care (POC) testing device is a very important tool for the Army in many different applications such as assessing the extent and effects of toxic and hazardous chemical exposure during deployments. Currently, a major challenge for POC testing technology is related to achieving multiplex capabilities with high detection sensitivity and quantification. In this proposal, we will apply our proprietary technologies in lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), novel nanoparticles and time-resolved luminescent detection to technology development for a compact system for multiplex Lateral Flow Immunoassay (MLFIA). These proprietary technologies are well beyond the state of the art currently in practice, and are expected to increase test sensitivity by orders of magnitude as well as provide needed quantitation not available in today’s LFIA tests. As with other POC testing devices, we will perform minimally invasive sampling of blood from fingers and utilize this small volume sample in MLFIA test strips read by our system. Time-resolved detection with long lifetime probes provides many significant advantages in sensitivity and practical uses since the detection signal is detected based on the signal’s time-domain separation. This is very important for Army and clinical diagnostics applications, because the detection background noise coming from clinical samples and autofluorescence/scattering signals from strip materials are always issues for diagnostic sensitivity. At the end of the Phase I, we will provide a proof-of-concept demonstration of our MLFIA technology with of multiple well-known protein analytes.