On-chip porous microgel generation for microfluidic enhanced VEGF detection

Advances in medical diagnostics and personalized therapy require sensitive and rapid measurement of minute amounts of proteins from patients. Standard ELISA is difficult to prepare and involves lengthy protocols. Here we report a novel method using capture antibody immobilized porous poly (ethylene) glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel microspheres to enable high sensitivity VEGF detection in arrayed microfluidics. Our technique incorporates antibody encapsulation, trapping, and flow perfusion on a single device. We showed that the convergence of tunable porous hydrogel with efficient microfluidics improved the sensitivity of the assay. The detection limit of this microfluidic porous microgel based assay was 0.9 pg/mL, with only 1+ hour of assay time, demonstrating a novel assay that exceeded conventional technologies in terms of sensitivity and speed.