Immune-Microassay with Optical Proteinchip for Protein Detection

Abstract

An optical proteinchip upon antigen-antibody affinity and the chip analysis system have been used in immune analysis. The chip is processed with chip design, surface patterning, surface modification, ligand immobilization to form a microarray with many immune probes - one kind of antigen (or antibody) occupying one unit in the microarray and many such units in matrix. In micro-reactor of bio-molecule interaction, when ligand met its receptor, they would bind into bio-specific complex, which resulted in the thickness of the probe surface layer (surface concentration of antigen-antibody) increasing. The variation of protein pattern on the chip surface corresponding to the ligand immobilization and protein interactions was screened with optical imaging ellipsometry. A non-labeling micro-assay for protein detection was realized with antigen-antibody affinity and non-disturbance optical sampling, which was available for the direct test of crude samples, such as serum, etc. Some application results in immune analysis were presented also.