Nanoengineered Encapsulation of Organic Microcrystal as Novel Biolabels

Immunoassays have been widely used as the standard technology for quantitative detection of analyte concentrations in the fields of medicine, environmental science, and food science. Immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), fluorescence immunoassays (FIA), electrochemical immunoassay (EIA), immunoagglutination assays (IAA) and radioimmunoassays (RIA) are the most commonly used laboratory techniques. A novel class of biolabel system based on encapsulated organic microcrystals was introduced. The biolablels were constructed by encapsulating organic microcrsytals within ultrathin polyelectrolyte multilayers followed by conjugating with biomolecules. This biolabel system can achieve a high molar ratio of signal-generating molecules to biomolecules which provides a new strategy for signal amplification in bioassay. Various applications of organic microcrystal biolabels especially on the utilization of electrochemical-active microcrystal biolabels for bioassays will be introduced. Moreover, different strategies to improve the performance of the organic microcrystal biolabels will be discussed.