Chinese scientists achieve in vitro diagnostic breakthrough

Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhejiang Orient Gene Biotech Co Ltd announced on Monday that they have jointly developed a multi-index in vitro detection system based on quantum dot liquid biochips.

Experts believe it will make significant contributions to the popularization and application of liquid biochip technology in China and further improve the country's level of technology in the field of in vitro diagnostics. 

Liquid biochips are suitable for both nucleic acid and protein markers. With advantages of large detection throughput and high detection sensitivity, it can analyze dozens of targets in a single tube sample at one time. This means the technology is expected to trigger revolutionary improvement in the detection efficiency and promote clinical laboratory testing.

"The technology can be used for tests to identify biomarkers for cancers, inflammatory infections, autoimmune diseases, and cardiovascular diseases among many others," said Li Wanwan, a researcher with Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Materials Science and Engineering and a leading scientist of the novel detection system.

The liquid biochip technology and its relevant signal interpretation have been monopolized by some foreign countries for long, with mounting barriers in both technical breakthroughs and manufacturing.

The research team led by Li at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Zhejiang enterprise have joined hands for collaboration for 18 years and have achieved a complete technological breakthrough in the entire chain from quantum dot fluorescent microspheres and detection analyzers, to supporting inspection reagents, and successfully created a quantum dot liquid biochip technology platform with independent intellectual property rights, breaking the international monopoly.

The system developed by the local teams is so far the only fully automatic liquid biochip system in the world that adopts single laser technology. It possesses advantages of small size, high throughput, low sample size, high accuracy, wide linear range, and low cost.

Detection reagents for diseases, including cancers, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases, used by the system have been developed accordingly. The series of detectors and supporting detection kits have obtained altogether 15 medical device registrations and certifications in China and Europe, said Li.