A microfluidic device for multiplexed protein detection in nano-liter volumes

We describe a microfluidic immunoassay device that permits sensitive and quantitative multiplexed protein measurements on nano-liter-scale samples. The device exploits the combined power of integrated microfluidics and optically encoded microspheres to create an array of approximately 100-μm2 sensors functionalized with capture antibodies directed against distinct targets. This strategy overcomes the need for performing biochemical coupling of affinity reagents to the device substrate, permits multiple proteins to be detected in a nano-liter-scale sample, is scalable to large numbers of samples, and has the required sensitivity to measure the abundance of proteins derived from single mammalian cells. The sensitivity of the device is sufficient to detect 1000 copies of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in a volume of 4.7 nl.