Saliva Analysis with an Array Sensor

描述(由申请人提供)：实时床边医疗诊断代表着医疗保健领域的一场革命，这场革命无疑将在不久的将来到来。它将对医学的实践产生深远的影响，并将极大地改善国家的一般医疗保健。与大多数医疗诊断程序一样，检测将需要采集样本。唾液无疑是可以收集的最无创的体液。先前的研究表明，唾液中存在大量不同的疾病标志物，因此唾液是实时床边医疗诊断的极佳媒介。 德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校(UT)最近开发了一项技术，该技术非常适合在床边诊断环境中的最终应用。这项技术是一种基于微珠的微机械阵列传感器套件，非常适合于多路复用传感阵列。在本申请中，我们描述了将这项技术扩展到唾液分析方面的工作。在与肯塔基大学(英国)的合作下，将执行基于ELISA的分析与UT技术之间的相关性。其目的是证明对唾液进行一系列代谢和疾病标志物的多重检测的可行性。 这项研究将包括开发九种化学分析方法，将它们组合成传感套件，使这些分析方法实用和可靠，并将结果与英国的结果相关联。同时，将对UT技术进行三项改进。这些技术包括制造“芯片上的芯片”，使得不兼容的化学成分可以被多路传输；形成可使珠子作为试剂源的平台，以最大限度地减少样品制备；以及创建自动化的、空间可分辨的珠粒分选过程，以改进制造。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Real-time bedside medical diagnostics presents a revolution in medical care that is undoubtedly coming in the near future. It will have a profound impact on how medicine is practiced, and will greatly improve the general health care of the Nation. As with most medical diagnostic procedures, the testing will require sample collection. Saliva is undoubtedly the most non-invasive bodily fluid that can be collected. Previous research has shown that a large number of various disease markers are present in saliva, and therefore saliva represents an excellent medium for real-time bedside medical diagnostics. At the University of Texas at Austin (UT) a technology has recently been developed that is well suited to an ultimate application in a bed-side diagnostic setting. This technology is a micro machined bead-based array sensor suite well suited to multiplexing sensing arrays. In this application we describe work focused upon extending this technology to saliva analysis. In a collaboration with the University of Kentucky (UK), correlations between ELISA based analyses with the UT technology will be performed. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of performing multiplexed assays on saliva for a series of metabolic and disease markers. The study will consist of developing nine chemical assays, combining them into sensing suites, making the assays practical and robust, and correlating the results with that from UK. At the same time three improvements will be made to the UT technology. These consist of fabricating "chips on chips" such that incompatible chemistries can be multiplexed, forming platforms where beads can act as reagent sources in order to minimize sample preparation, and creating an automated, spatially resolved bead sorting process to improve manufacturing.