Rapid, multiparameter profiling of cellular secretion using silicon photonic microring resonator arrays

We have developed a silicon photonic biosensing chip capable of multiplexed protein measurements in a biomolecularly complex cell culture matrix. Using this multiplexed platform combined with fast one-step sandwich immunoassays, we perform a variety of T cell cytokine secretion studies with excellent time-to-result. Using 32-element arrays of silicon photonic microring resonators, the cytokines interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-5 (IL-5), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) were simultaneously quantified with high accuracy in serum-containing cell media. Utilizing this cytokine panel, secretion profiles were obtained for primary human Th0, Th1, and Th2 subsets differentiated from naïve CD4+ T cells, and we show the ability to discriminate between lineage commitments at early stages of culture differentiation. We also utilize this approach to probe the temporal secretion patterns of each T cell type using real-time binding analyses for direct cytokine quantitation down to ∼100 pM with just a 5 min-analysis.