Clinically Appropriate Implementation of Polymerization-Based Amplification in Molecular Diagnostics

Polymerization-based amplification (PBA) has recently emerged as a promising signal amplification technique for use in molecular diagnostic devices.  This technique couples polymerization reactions to biological binding events, and cross-linked hydrogel polymers serve as an amplified readout to report on the number of binding events without the requirement of expensive reagents or instrumentation. An initiator-functionalized binding partner for the analyte molecule of interest and aqueous monomers that react to form a cross-linked hydrogel are the key chemical components of PBA, and light has been demonstrated as a convenient input of energy to trigger a polymerization reaction that reports on binding events.  This talk will address the problem of oxygen inhibition, and we will present a solution that allows practical implementation of PBA in molecular diagnostic devices.  Advances include reaction in an air environment (30-100 s) and uncompromised sensitivity in comparison with previous PBA results obtained with inert gas purging and twenty-minute reaction times.  In addition, tolerance for complex analyte solutions will be demonstrated with examples in the area of cancer diagnostics.