Challenge:
Maxwell Sensors Inc. develops proprietary Digital Magnetic Beads (DMB) technology that combines two advanced technologies, lithographic digital barcodes and molecular chemistry, into a new technology. The optically bar-coded beads are fabricated at low cost by photolithography and can be functionalized with nucleic acids, proteins or other probe molecules, allowing large multiplexed assays to be carried out in homogeneous or heterogeneous media. We were asked to develop a reader for these beads.
Requirements:
Read and identify up to 3,000 optical beads per second while simultaneously quantifying the fluorescent emission of each bead.
Difficulties:
Correlating the bar code reading with fluorescent detection at 3,000 beads/seconds.
We had no trigger mechanism in place that could be used to trigger the camera.
Solution:
Using a DALSA line scan camera, a National Instruments data acquisition board to generate synchronization signals, a laser excitation source and a photon multiplier tube we were able to perform the required measurements.
Result:
We were able to read beads that were only 200um long and detect 5um optical features at speeds of up to 1.5 meter/sec. We correlated fluorescent emission with a secondary reader to each bead with no means of triggering. Using our advanced imaging capabilities and years of experience we were able to rapidly develop this cutting-edge technology, which significantly shortened the time to market for our customer.
|
