In today's fast-paced research environment, technologies for speedy, cost-efficient analyses reign supreme. As part of this general trend, techniques for multiplexing, that is, simultaneously performing different assays on the same sample within the same reaction vessel, are on the rise.
"Multiplexed bead-based assay platforms are becoming increasingly popular, because they enable a great deal of quantitative information to be obtained with significant savings in labor and sample volume ... using currently available instrumentation," says Kevin Reagan, vice president of immunology at BioSource International in Camarillo, Calif. "These approaches are of broad interest because they can be used for virtually any biologic assay based on analyte capture or binding." He adds, "One particularly hot application is their use for examining the complexity of biomarkers and their interplay."
Addressable beads can be used in a variety of formats, including suspension arrays, in which probes are conjugated to mobile bead sets1 that usually ...
