ABSTRACT
Immunodetection techniques, for example, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [1], have been a workhorse of detection and quantitation of disease biomarkers, including cancer markers. While ELISA is a well-established and robust technique, there continues to be an interest in developing alternative biomarker detection techniques that would be more suitable for practical clinical applications. For example, it becomes increasingly clear that in order to achieve acceptable sensitivity and specicity, molecular diagnostics assays will have to employ a panel of biomarkers rather then relying on a single biomarker. Classical ELISA assays do not allow easy multiplexing. Therefore, efforts to develop multiplexed ELISA designs or to develop alternative multiplexing-friendly assay formats (e.g., protein arrays [2]) have been implemented to overcome this ELISA shortcoming. Simplication of biomarker detection is another area of alternative assay development. ELISA is a relatively lengthy process involving multiple steps of reagent addition and washing. Development of greatly simplied biomarker detection technologies could reduce the cost of the assays and could allow point-of-care deployment of the assays.
