Rapid and Inexpensive Biochip-Based Allergy Testing

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GenTel BioSurfaces (GenTel) seeks to establish the technical merit and feasibility of an allergen biochip for use as a rapid, inexpensive and easy-to-use in vitro method for identifying elevated allergen-specific IgE titers in serum. This biochip is based upon a uniform gold surface that is highly amenable to chemical modification and uses a unique microchannel technology (Array 2 Microchannels). On-chip microchannels enable many discreet interactions to be studied simultaneously and allow rapid, on-chip generation of a standard curve. Quantification is obtained in an analogous manner to an enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Together, these technologies allow GenTel to develop a robust allergen biochip that can be used to rapidly quantitate allergen-specific IgE titers in serum. This biochip will find applications in the clinical and research communities including, but not limited to, allergen-specific IgE profiling of human patients, monitoring vaccine and therapeutic antibody efficacy in animal models, antigenic determination and localization of antibody populations. The objectives of this proposal are to: (1) Select optimal surface chemistry for attachment of allergens as measure by the highest, specific binding of target IgE; (2) develop and determine optimal surface chemistry for blocking non-specific adsorption of human serum components to the array surface as measured by the highest signal: noise ratio and (3) to validate the ability of the proposed allergen biochip to quantitatively determine the titer of an allergen-specific IgE using our innovative Array" Microchannels by comparing the results to those obtained by ELISA. A follow-up Phase II proposal will broaden the number of allergens tested and further develop our Array 2 Microfluidics technology by integrating sample purification with the biochip. This will enable direct application of whole blood to the biochip and an inexpensive chip-reading allergy test with a turnaround time of about one hour.