Automation of a magnetic immuno-PCR on a centrifugal point-of-care analyzer

For the first time we demonstrate automation of an Immuno-PCR (IPCR) assay on the centrifugal microfluidic platform. All necessary assay steps are integrated on a single test carrier (“LabDisk”) that is processed on a centrifugal point-of-care analyzer: A one-step kinetics-based immunoreaction; two-fold washing; thermal elution of DNA-conjugated antibodies; and a realtime PCR. Processing solely requires loading of the sample and immuno-reagents. The entire process is automated from thereon using a programmed rotational protocol. As a model study we demonstrate quantification of human highsensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP).