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Substrates, devices, and methods for quantitative liquid crystal assays

a liquid crystal assay and liquid crystal technology, applied in the field of molecular diagnostics, can solve the problems of not being able to adapt to microarray format, requiring expensive reagents, radioactively labeled antibodies or antigens,

Inactive Publication Date: 2010-09-02
PLATYPUS TECH
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention relates to a method for diagnostics based on liquid crystal assay devices. The method involves adding a sample suspected of containing an analyte to a liquid crystal assay device and observing the detectable ordering of mesogens in the device. The method can be performed using a variety of liquid crystal assay devices and surface substrates. The detection of the analyte is based on the interaction between the analyte and the recognition moiety attached to the surface of the device. The method can also involve measuring the amount of light transmitted by the device or the degree of disorder introduced into the device. The invention provides a simple and effective method for diagnostics based on liquid crystal assay devices."

Problems solved by technology

However, most of these method requires expensive reagents (e.g., radioactively labeled antibodies or antigens), are not adaptable to microarray format (e.g., agglutinations assays), or require expensive, laboratory based equipment (e.g., SPR).
Although many of the conventional assay methods described above work very well to detect the presence of target species, they are expensive and often require instrumentation and highly trained individuals, which makes them difficult to use routinely in the field.

Method used

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  • Substrates, devices, and methods for quantitative liquid crystal assays
  • Substrates, devices, and methods for quantitative liquid crystal assays
  • Substrates, devices, and methods for quantitative liquid crystal assays

Examples

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example 1

[0297]This Example describes the detection of non-specific adsorption of a molecule to a surface. An electron beam evaporator is used to obliquely deposit 30 Angstroms of titanium and then 130 Angstroms of gold onto immobile glass microscope slides. The rate of deposition of the metals is 0.2 Angstroms / sec and the angle of deposition is 50 degrees from the normal. This gold film is immersed into an ethanolic solution of hexadecanethiol to form a hydrophobic monolayer on the surface of the gold film. A droplet of 10 micromolar BSA in PBS is then placed on the surface of the hydrophobic gold film for 20 mins. The droplet is then rinsed from the surface using PBS, then water. The functionalized gold film is then paired with a second gold film that supports a self-assembled monolayer formed from decanethiol and hexadecanethiol that causes nematic phases of 5CB to orient perpendicular to the mixed monolayer. A thin film of Mylar (thickness 10-20 micrometers) is used to separate the two s...

example 2

[0298]This Example describes the detection of non-specific adsorption of a molecule to a surface. In particular, this example describes detection of the non-specific binding of the BSA to the SAM formed from hexadecanethiol. An electron beam evaporator is used to obliquely deposit 30 Angstroms of titanium and then 130 Angstroms of gold onto immobile glass microscope slides. The rate of deposition of the metals is 0.2 Angstroms / sec and the angle of deposition is 50 degrees from the normal. This gold film is immersed into an ethanolic solution of hexadecanethiol to form a hydrophobic monolayer on the surface of the gold film. Next, BSA is adsorbed to the gold film at a level that does not cause liquid crystal on the surface to assume a non-uniform orientation. Anti-BSA IgG in Triton X-100 (to prevent non-specific adsorption of the IgG) is then bound to the BSA. The bound anti-biotin IgG is imaged by placing liquid crystal on the surface.

example 3

[0299]This Example describes the detection of non-specific adsorption of a molecule to a surface. First, a cellulose nitrate film is mechanically rubbed so that it uniformly aligns liquid crystal. Proteins separated by gel electrophoresis are transferred onto the surface of the rubbed film by standard Western blotting procedures. The bands of transferred proteins are imaged by placement of liquid crystal on the rubbed film.

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Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of molecular diagnostics, and in particular to diagnostics based on a liquid crystal assay format. In particular, the present invention provided improved substrates and methods of using liquid crystal assays for quantitating the amount of an analyte in a sample. The present invention also provides materials and methods for detecting non-specific binding of an analyte to a substrate by using a liquid crystal assay format.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 227,974, filed: Aug. 26, 2002 (allowed), which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 315,203, filed: Aug. 27, 2001, both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to the field of molecular diagnostics, and in particular to diagnostics based on a liquid crystal assay format.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The detection of pathogen, protein, and nucleic acid targets in biological samples forms the basis of the multi-billion dollar in vitro diagnostic industry. Detection of protein and nucleic acid targets can be divided into diagnostic and research based markets. The diagnostic market includes the detection and identification of pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, the identification of various genetic markers, and the identification of markers associated wit...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): C12M1/34G01N33/00G01N30/96G01N21/75
CPCB82Y30/00Y10T436/143333G01N21/75
Inventor ABBOTT, NICHOLASMURPHY, CHRISTOPHERISRAEL, BARBARA
Owner PLATYPUS TECH