Liquid bead arrays meet multiplexing needs of clinical and research laboratories

Abstract

Profile-oriented testing is becoming increasingly more important in both disease research and disease diagnosis. Research and clinical laboratories alike are expanding many single-analytic tests to include additional markers, as new data is uncovered. Technological innovations such as high-density arrays offer the promise of more efficient disease diagnosis and treatment. However, many of these promises remain unfulfilled. For example, the high-density array (/spl Gt/1000 features) is a powerful tool for research and discovery, but may not be suitable for a clinical laboratory due to complexity, inflexibility, poor reproducibility, and irrelevance of much of the data. Such challenges leave an unmet need in clinical laboratories for a simple, flexible, robust, and cost effective platform. An area of considerable promise is the medium-density array (<1000 features), which allows more cost-effective, focused panels of assays to be performed. Specifically, medium-density liquid bead arrays further address the issues of inflexibility and lack of reproducibility that plague two-dimensional arrays. With standard tests such as cytokines, cystic fibrosis, autoimmune, cytochrome P450, and HLA testing all falling into the medium-density range of multiplexing, liquid bead arrays address many current laboratory needs.