title: Stereolithography-Based 3D Printed "Pillar Plates" that Minimizes Fluid Transfers During Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays.
abstract: Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is one of the most popular and indispensable tools in molecular biology. Despite numerous advances in ELISA methods that markedly improve the sensitivity and throughput of detection, a hallmark of all ELISA continues to be repeated pipetting of fluids that is not only cumbersome but can easily introduce errors or contaminations. Robotics, despite obvious advantages, remains expensive. Here, we designed and produced cheap "pillar plates" using stereolithography-based 3D printing that can be readily inserted into conventional 96- and 384- well plates and serve as the substrate for ELISA. We demonstrate that ELISA using these "pillar plates" affords comparable specificity and sensitivity of detection of serum antibodies to traditional sandwich ELISA, while markedly reducing the time and efforts associated with fluid transfer. These results underscore "pillar plates" as an attractive platform for rapid yet robotics-free ELISA.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoengineering & Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 Mason Farm Road, Marsico, Chapel Hill, 4213, USA.
authors.forename: Justin D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: McCallen
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoengineering & Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 Mason Farm Road, Marsico, Chapel Hill, 4213, USA.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoengineering & Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 Mason Farm Road, Marsico, Chapel Hill, 4213, USA.
authors.forename: Phoebe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Biophysical Society, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Loretta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hing
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoengineering & Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 125 Mason Farm Road, Marsico, Chapel Hill, 4213, USA. lai@unc.edu.|UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. lai@unc.edu.|Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. lai@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Samuel K
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5293-9296
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional
keywords: 3D Printing; CAD; ELISA