title: Fractal dimension of microbead assemblies used for protein detection.
abstract: We use fractal analysis to calculate the protein concentration in a rotating magnetic assembly of microbeads of size 1 μm, which has optimized parameters of sedimentation, binding sites and magnetic volume. We utilize the original Forrest-Witten method, but due to the relatively small number of bead particles, which is of the order of 500, we use a large number of origins and also a large number of algorithm iterations. We find a value of the fractal dimension in the range 1.70-1.90, as a function of the thrombin concentration, which plays the role of binding the microbeads together. This is in good agreement with previous results from magnetorotation studies. The calculation of the fractal dimension using multiple points of reference can be used for any assembly with a relatively small number of particles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Univeristy of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109 (USA).
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hecht
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Commiskey
authors.forename: Filippos
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lazaridis
authors.forename: Panos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Argyrakis
authors.forename: Raoul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kopelman
mesh_terms: D017709:Fractals; D008280:Magnetics; D008863:Microspheres; D010316:Particle Size; D011485:Protein Binding; D012984:Software; D013917:Thrombin / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D013917:Thrombin
keywords: fractal dimensions; medical diagnostics; microbead assemblies; proteins; thrombin