Monitoring Dissociation Kinetics during Electrophoretic Focusing to Enable High-Specificity Nucleic Acid Detection.

A wide range of medical conditions can be diagnosed through sequence-specific analysis of nucleic acids. However, a major challenge remains in detecting a specific target in samples containing a high concentration of mismatching sequences. A single-step kinetic homogenous (free solution) assay is presented in which free sequence-specific probes are continuously separated from probe-target hybrids during electrophoretic sample focusing, allowing monitoring of dissociation kinetics.

Isotachophoresis-Based Surface Immunoassay.

In the absence of amplification methods for proteins, the immune-detection of low-abundance proteins using antibodies is fundamentally limited by binding kinetic rates. Here, we present a new class of surface-based immunoassays in which protein-antibody reaction is accelerated by isotachophoresis (ITP). We demonstrate the use of ITP to preconcentrate and deliver target proteins to a surface decorated with specific antibodies, where effective utilization of the focused sample is achieved by modulating the driving electric field (stop-and-diffuse ITP mode) or applying a counter flow that opposes the ITP motion (counterflow ITP mode).