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AssigneeBeckman Coulter, Inc.
InventorsROBERT J. OBREMSKI, JOHN W. SILZEL, TSONG-TSEH TSAY, BIBIJANA CERCEK, CHARLES L. DODSON, TUNG RUNG WANG, YAGANG LIU, SHAOMIN ZHOU
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A microscale binding assay, analyte binding array, and kits are disclosed, which exploit the mass action law to harvest analyte from a liquid sample. This is achieved by fabrication of sorbent zones having up to ten times the binding capacity per unit area generally obtained on polystyrene microtiter plates. The resulting arrays substantially deplete the liquid solution of analyte during incubation. Accordingly, the assays respond to total mass of analyte in the sample, not analyte concentration. This approach, coupled with direct fluorescence detection in the NIR, yields maximal signal intensity and low background for optimal sensitivity.
A binding assay for sensing analyte mass in a liquid sample, comprising:
An analyte binding array for harvesting analyte from a liquid sample, the array comprising a plurality of sorbent zones immobilized on a substrate, wherein a sorbent zone comprises an analyte binding partner, the analyte binding partner being present in an amount sufficient to substantially deplete the analyte from a sample, the zone being less than about 500 μm in diameter and the sample containing about 105 to about 1010 molecules of analyte.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.