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Updated: Jan 27, 2026
High-throughput Screening for Chemical Modulators of Post-transcriptionally Regulated Genes
Published on: March 3, 2015
A Microfabricated Sandwiching Assay for Nanoliter and High-Throughput Biomarker Screening
Praveen Bandaru1,2, Dafeng Chu1,2, Wujin Sun1,2
1Department of Bioengineering, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Abstract:
Cells secrete substances that are essential to the understanding of numerous immunological phenomena and are extensively used in clinical diagnoses. Countless techniques for screening of biomarker secretion in living cells have generated valuable information on cell function and physiology, but low volume and real-time analysis is a bottleneck for a range of approaches. Here, a simple, highly sensitive assay using a high-throughput micropillar and microwell array chip (MIMIC) platform is presented for monitoring of biomarkers secreted by cancer cells. The sensing element is a micropillar array that uses the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) mechanism to detect captured biomolecules. When integrated with a microwell array where few cells are localized, interleukin 8 (IL-8) secretion can be monitored with nanoliter volume using multiple micropillar arrays. The trend of cell secretions measured using MIMICs matches the results from conventional ELISA well while it requires orders of magnitude less cells and volumes. Moreover, the proposed MIMIC is examined to be used as a drug screening platform by delivering drugs using micropillar arrays in combination with a microfluidic system and then detecting biomolecules from cells as exposed to drugs.
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