Monolithic silicon chip for immunofluorescence detection on single magnetic beads.

While fluorescence detection is widely used for bioassays owing to its high sensitivity, a complete fluorescent microscopy setup, comprised of a light source, optical filters, a microscope body, and a camera, still is bulky equipment, compromising its use in a point-of-care environment. Here we propose an integrated monolithic silicon chip for integrated magnetic manipulation and optical detection of fluorescently labeled magnetic beads. Our approach permits microscopeless measurement of the fluorescence of a single microparticle. We demonstrate the viability of this approach by the detection of cancer biomarker 5D10 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in a noncompetitive sandwich immunoassay performed on the surface of magnetic beads, in a phosphate buffered saline-bovine serum albumin (PBS-BSA) solution, with a detection limit of 1 ng mL(-1).