Principle, Principle 2, Technology – Bio-Rad Bio-Plex Pro™ Human Chemokine Assays User Manual
Page 4: Assay format

Principle
Technology
The Bio-Plex
®
multiplex system is built upon the three core elements of
xMAP technology:
n
Fluorescently dyed magnetic microspheres (also called beads), each
with a distinct color code or spectral address to permit discrimination of
individual tests within a multiplex suspension. This allows simultaneous
detection of up to 500 different molecules in a single well of a 96-well
microplate on the Bio-Plex
®
3D system, up to 100 different molecules
on the Bio-Plex
®
200 system, and up to 50 different molecules on the
Bio-Plex
®
MAGPIX
™
system
n
A dedicated plate reader. The Bio-Plex 200 and Bio-Plex 3D systems
are flow cytometry–based instruments with two lasers and associated
optics to measure the different molecules bound to the surface of the
beads. In the Bio-Plex MAGPIX system, the sample is injected into a
chamber where the beads are imaged using LED and CCD technology
n
A high-speed digital signal processor that efficiently manages the
fluorescence data
Assay Format
Bio-Plex Pro
™
assays are essentially immunoassays formatted on
magnetic beads. The assay principle is similar to that of a sandwich
ELISA (Figure 1). Capture antibodies directed against the desired
biomarker are covalently coupled to the beads. Coupled beads react
with the sample containing the biomarker of interest. After a series of
washes to remove unbound protein, a biotinylated detection antibody
is added to create a sandwich complex. The final detection complex is
formed with the addition of streptavidin-phycoerythrin (SA-PE) conjugate.
Phycoerythrin serves as a fluorescent indicator, or reporter.
2