Microchip-based immunoassay system with branching multichannels for simultaneous determination of interferon-gamma

A bead-bed immunoassay system suitable for simultaneous assay of multiple samples was constructed on a microchip. The chip had branching multichannels and four reaction and detection regions; the constructed system could process four samples at a time with only one pump unit. Interferon gamma was assayed by a 3-step sandwich immunoassay with the system coupled to a thermal lens microscope as a detector. The biases of the signal intensities obtained from each channel were within 10%, and coefficients of variation were almost the same level as the single straight channel assay. The assay time for four samples was 50 min instead of 35 min for one sample in the single-channel assay; hence higher throughput was realized with the branching structure chip.