Lipophilic-membrane based routing for centrifugal automation of heterogeneous immunoassays

We demonstrate centrifugal [liquid handling] automation of an Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) for the detection of anti-p53 antibodies in whole blood. On this “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) platform, all unit operations were implemented by event-triggered rotational flow control. In order to avoid interference during absorbance measurement from the solid phase in this heterogeneous assay format, it is pivotal that the intermediate reaction product is eventually forwarded from the incubation chamber to a distinct optical measurement chamber. To this end we have devised routing of flows by lipophilic film valves (LFVs) which remain intact in aqueous and selectively dissolve when exposed to an ancillary, oleophilic solvent.