Innovative immuno-assay exploiting magnetic nanoparticles and structured micro-magnets

Magnetic attraction is widely used in biotechnology, because it provides long-range forces able to capture molecules of interest. Micro-magnet arrays from Neel Institute (CNRS, Grenoble, FRANCE) can efficiently trap highly diffusive magnetic nanoparticles thanks to their high local gradients. This innovative technology is used to develop fast immuno-assays that take advantage of a radical size reduction, compared to commercial technology. Our first objective is to embed micro-magnets in 96 wells plates to accelerate and enhance performances of standard ELISA. As micro-magnets are embedded in standard microwell plates, our plates remain fully compatible with plates readers. We will compare the ELISA performances applied to ovalbumin antibody detection.