Research Brief 243 - Detecting Environmental Chemicals with Novel Immunoassay Technology.

摘要

A new low-cost portable device uses a smart phone to detect the presence and concentrations of BDE-47 (2,2’,4,4’-tetrabromodiphenyl ether), a type of flame retardant and widespread environmental contaminant. The device uses a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platform to perform micro-scale enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), a popular lab technique that uses antibodies designed to measure a specific substance in a sample. The LOC platform performed comparably to the standard ELISA laboratory protocol, but in much less time and with much smaller sample sizes. The system, developed by researchers led by Tingrui Pan, Ph.D., at the University of California (UC) Davis Superfund Research Program, is cost-effective, easy-to-use, and widely accessible. It can be used to detect levels of BDE-47 in human samples, such as blood, as well as in liquid samples from the environment. It can also be applied to other chemicals, facilitating mobile detection of health and environmental contaminants in rural or less developed regions.