Lab-in-a-Tip: a multiplex immunoassay platform based on a self-assembled barcoded protein array

Yiran He, Min Jiang, Zhenlong Liang, Zhaoxu Luo, Jingyi Qin, Ye Shen, Yayun Gu, Xiaodong Ma, Hong Wang, Xin Li, Ying Shi, Yanhua Chen, Kefeng Pu () and Jiong Li ()
Additional contact information
Yiran He: University of Science and Technology of China
Min Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhenlong Liang: Chinese PLA General Hospital
Zhaoxu Luo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jingyi Qin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ye Shen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yayun Gu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiaodong Ma: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hong Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xin Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ying Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yanhua Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Kefeng Pu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jiong Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract High throughput immunoassay is increasingly crucial for both scientific and clinical applications. Here we propose a “Lab-in-a-Tip” (LIT) concept to fabricate a pipette tip containing a high-density protein array and other essential reagents. The protein array is made by self-assembling digitally encoded microparticles inside the modified tip. Mounted on a robotic workstation, it automates liquid-handling steps. Notably, compared with Luminex, the current gold standard in multiplex immunoassays, such a design enables LIT to demonstrate multiple advantages in terms of analytical sensitivity, speed, and throughput. It detects analyte concentrations as low as fg/ml, representing a sensitivity improvement of two orders of magnitude over Luminex. Incubation time is reduced to 15 minutes from Luminex’s 210 minutes. Furthermore, LIT requires only 10 µl of sample, one-fifth of what Luminex needs. This makes LIT ideal for rapid diagnostics and studies with limited biological samples, greatly expanding its application scope.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59390-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59390-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59390-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().