David H Wilson, David M Rissin, Cheuk W Kan, David R Fournier, Tomasz Piech, Todd G Campbell, Raymond E Meyer, Matthew W Fishburn, Carlos Cabrera, Purvish P Patel, Erica Frew, Yao Chen, Lei Chang, Evan P Ferrell, Volker von Einem, William McGuigan, Marcus Reinhardt, Heiko Sayer, Claus Vielsack, David C Duffy
Disease detection at the molecular level is driving the emerging revolution of early diagnosis and treatment. A challenge facing the field is that protein biomarkers for early diagnosis can be present in very low abundance. The lower limit of detection with conventional immunoassay technology is the upper femtomolar range (10(-13) M). Digital immunoassay technology has improved detection sensitivity three logs, to the attomolar range (10(-16) M). This capability has the potential to open new advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, but such technologies have been relegated to manual procedures that are not well suited for efficient routine use...
August 2016: Journal of Laboratory Automation