Serum Multimarkers Assay Based Rapid Test (SMART) for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Measurement of panels of biomarker proteins from whole blood holds great promise for early detection of diseases, guidance to personalized therapy, and drug development. For broad clinical applicability, new devices are needed that offer high portability, low cost, high sensitivity and accuracy, automatic operation and require minimal technical expertise. In this regard, micro/nano engineering techniques such as lab-on-a-chip technologies and nanosensors are emerging as the next revolution tools for this unrealized promise of user-friendly quantitative multiplexed diagnostics for candidate biomarkers. Such advantages can be integrated in ELISA based assay with an electrically recordable format for the measurement of serum biomarkers from whole blood for complex diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). The clinical management of the multifaceted diseases is tampered by variation of clinical symptoms, unsteady flares and remissions, unpredictable severity and absence of true biomarkers which demand multiple biomarker signatures to reflect all aspects of SLE. Further, point-of-care analyses are preferred over off-site determinations, posing an even more formidable bioanalytical challenge. So there is an urgent need for the development of low cost, reliable and portable devices with less human intervention for the multimarker diagnostics of SLE. Therefore Biopico Systems Inc. teams with University of California, Irvine to bring out a truly revolutionary Serum Multimarkers Assay based Rapid Test (SMART) using microfluidic serum extraction from whole blood and multiplexed sensing using nanosensor array. This SMART system will enable laboratory analysis for faster, direct, accurate and selective for a wide variety of diseases panel and so has the potential to be miniaturized and integrated as a user-friendly point of care system for patients undergoing therapy. The influence of racial background, age, gender and disease stage on experimental outcome among large number of patients' samples will be statistically analyzed to establish expression pattern and percent association of the candidate biomarkers of SLE.
Biopico Systems Inc. and UC Irvine propose a Nanostructured sensor system for multiplexed diagnostics of wide disease panel applications. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one of the most fascinating and heterogeneous of all human diseases, affecting as many as 2 Million Americans. More sophisticated and accurate approaches to diagnose SLE are urgently needed for monitoring patients both for routine clinical care and for clinical trials research. The SMART system combines immunoassay, microfluidics and nanosensing for screening serum markers for SLE. This novel platform will help the patients to evaluate the response of SLE therapy and improve their quality of life.
