Laboratory-On-A-Bead Technology

Nanobiotechnology impacts a number of areas in the Life Sciences – from cosmetics and personal care to diagnostics, therapeutics, and medical technology. The huge amount of information and interdisciplinary technologies developed from gene research has wide applications. It is an emerging area of opportunity that seeks to fuse nano/microfabrication and biosystems to the benefit of both. Nanobiotechnology is highly interdisciplinary by nature and requires close collaboration between biologists, physical scientists, and engineers. Nanoscale devices open up a new horizon in medical diagnostics and treatment, as technological advances in materials and biosensors become precursors for advancing medical applications.

The ‘Laboratory on a Bead’(Qbead) technology facilitates large-scale genetic analysis. Quantum dots are used as building blocks for a novel and flexible encoding platform utilizing latex microspheres. By mixing various combinations of spectrally distinct quantum dots, together with the much larger latex beads, it is possible to generate many thousands of resolvable codes. The quantum dots can either be trapped inside or on the outside of beads, both methods enable the bead to be identified and the code to be detected. It is capable of both decoding beads and reading assay reporters with a high level of sensitivity.

The graphic depicts how different color combinations of quantum dots can be inserted into beads creating distinct spectral bar codes. Each bead then serves as a substrate for a test of interest. Each test can then be distinguished by its spectral code and hence one can perform many tests in parallel.

Qbead will provide significant benefits:

·         Assay time: The microspheres react in an environment that is close to solution phase. The diffusion distances are extremely small in Qbead assays as the sample volumes are very small. Both of these factors lead to ultra-sensitive and rapid assays, allowing measurements to be made quickly and with vanishing small samplings.

·         Sensitivity: In addition to the optimal reaction kinetics, Qbead assays are detected using Qdot nanocrystals. The detection system is optimally designed to detect quantum dots. All of the quantum dot optical properties to generate ultra-sensitive assay signals are utilized.

·         Ease of use: Qbead assays are very easy to use. The microspheres are pipetted in the same ways that liquids are currently pipetted, either manually or robotically.

·         Flexibility: If a new data point needs to be added to an existing assay (for example, a new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is found in the user’s gene of interest), all that is required is that the new ligand is attached to a differently coded batch of microspheres, then these new microspheres are added to the master mix.

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