A combined experimental and theoretical study on the immunoassay of human immunoglobulin using a quartz crystal microbalance.

We investigate a immunoassay biosensor that employs a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) to detect the specific binding reaction of the (Human IgG1)-(Anti-Human IgG1) protein pair under physiological conditions. In addition to experiments, a three dimensional time domain finite element method (FEM) was used to perform simulations for the biomolecular binding reaction in microfluidic channels. In particular, we discuss the unsteady convective diffusion in the transportation tube, which conveys the buffer solution containing the analyte molecules into the micro-channel where the QCM sensor lies.