Biosensor Surface Plasmon Resonance Assay Method
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current biosensor methods require long contact times and multiple time-consuming steps, such as washing and regeneration, to ensure high-quality response signals, leading to significant runtimes and reduced throughput when assessing interactions between analytes and ligands.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a sensor surface with immobilized ligands, where the contact time between the sample solution and the ligand is reduced to less than 15 seconds, eliminating the need for washing and regeneration steps, and using high ligand densities to ensure sufficient binding capacity for multiple sample analyses without surface regeneration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If long contact times (greater than 30 seconds) are used to ensure high and stable response values, then measurement precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to extended cycle times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the contact time parameter from conventional long durations (>30 seconds) to short durations (5-15 seconds), and adjusts ligand density parameters to compensate, thereby maintaining measurement precision while dramatically improving productivity and reducing cycle times
2Reliability
If washing and regeneration steps are included to maintain sensor surface quality, then reliability is improved, but loss of time worsens due to extended cycle times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the washing and regeneration steps from the conventional assay protocol, relying instead on short contact times and high ligand densities to maintain reliable measurements without requiring these additional time-consuming operations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses excessive ligand density to compensate for the reduced contact time, ensuring that sufficient binding occurs within the shortened time frame without requiring regeneration steps to restore the surface
3Measurement precision
If multiple carry-over control injections are performed to monitor fluidics pollution, then measurement precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to reduced throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the carry-over control injections from the assay protocol, demonstrating that short contact times inherently minimize carry-over effects, thereby maintaining measurement precision while dramatically improving productivity
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach provides meaningful and repeatable binding data while significantly reducing cycle times, enhancing throughput in applications like drug discovery and antibody screening, allowing for faster and more efficient analysis of multiple samples without the need for regeneration or carry-over control injections.
Implementation Method 1
A representative such biosensor system is the BIACORE® instrumentation sold by GE Healthcare, which uses surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for detecting interactions between molecules in a sample and molecular structures immobilized on a sensing surface
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides a method of assaying a sample solution for the presence of a first analyte comprising: (a) providing a sensor surface having a ligand immobilized thereto; (b) flowing the sample solution over the sensor surface; and (c) detecting the presence or absence of binding of the analyte to the ligand on the sensor surface;wherein the contact time between the sample solution and the immobilized ligand is less than 15 seconds.