Investigating the Effect of Substrate Materials on Wearable Immunoassay Performance

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03933
• Publication Date: 2016-12-25T02:04:53Z
• Authors: Khai T. Lee; Jacob W. Coffey; Kye J. Robinson; David A. Muller; Lisbeth Grøndahl; Mark A. F. Kendall; Paul R. Young; Simon R. Corrie
• Keywords: Polycarbonate; Polymer substrate; Bioanalysis; Biofouling; Surface Modification; PEGylation

Immunoassays are ubiquitous across research and clinical laboratories, yet little attention is paid to the effect of substrate material on assay performance characteristics. Given emerging interest in wearable immunoassay formats, investigations into materials that provide an optimal mix mechanical bioanalytical properties paramount. In course our developing immunoassays which can penetrate skin selectively capture disease antigens from underlying blood vessels, we recently identified significant differences between gold polycarbonate surfaces, even with a consistent surface modification procedure. We observed PEG density, antibody immobilization, nonspecific adsorption two substrates. Despite higher density formed gold-coated surfaces than amine-functionalized polycarbonate, latter revealed immobilized lower adsorption, leading improved signal-to-noise ratios sensitivities. The major conclusion this study designing bioassays or biosensors, design its antifouling polymer layer significantly affect terms analytical specificity sensitivity.