Up-converting reporters for biological and other assays using laser excitation techniques

A method for determining the presence of at least one target analyte in a liquid sample comprising:

• flowing the liquid sample across a lateral surface to a capture area on the lateral surface, wherein the capture area has immobilized thereon at least one capture probe which binds specifically to the at least one target analyte to form a target analyte-capture probe complex;
• contacting the target analyte-capture probe complex with at least one labeled probe comprised of an up-converting phosphor label attached to a probe which binds specifically to the target analyte to form a capture probe-target analyte-labeled probe complex;
• illuminating the capture area with excitation radiation;
• and
• detecting emission radiation from the capture area, wherein the emission radiation has a shorter wavelength than the excitation radiation.

A method for determining the presence of at least one target analyte in a liquid sample comprising:

• combining a liquid sample with at least one labeled probe to form a liquid mixture comprising a target analyte-labeled probe complex, wherein the at least one labeled probe is comprised of an up-converting phosphor label attached to a probe which binds specifically to the at least one target analyte to form a target analyte-labeled probe complex,
• flowing the liquid mixture across a lateral surface to a capture area on the lateral surface, wherein the capture area has immobilized thereon at least one capture probe which binds specifically to the target analyte-labeled probe complex,
• illuminating the capture area with excitation radiation;
• and
• detecting emission radiation from the capture area, wherein the emission radiation has a shorter wavelength than the excitation radiation.

In a method for determining the presence of at least one target analyte in a liquid sample comprising

• flowing the liquid sample across a lateral surface to a capture area on the lateral surface, wherein a portion of the surface contains at least one mobilized labeled probe which binds specifically to the at least one target analyte to form a labeled probe-analyte complex and wherein the capture surface has immobilized thereon on at least one capture probe which binds specifically to the labeled probe-analyte complex,
• the improvement comprising:
• using an up-converting phosphor label;
• illuminating the capture area with excitation radiation;
• and
• detecting emission radiation from the capture area, wherein the emission radiation has a shorter wavelength than the excitation radiation.