How Luminex Assay Helps in Covid-19 Testing

Luminex Assays

Luminex assays are a special type of immunoassay that can be used to achieve precision when measuring many analytes in just one sample. It is a bead type of assay that can permit a multiplex detection of about one hundred analytes at a time. The internal parts of these beads are dyed with several infrared colors to a corresponding region. It can expand in many forms, such as the cytokines that can occur in a sample. These samples give out important information about the processes involved. These assays use some sets of fluorescent beads where each bead gets in a certain spot within the fluorescent spectrum. These beads are protected with antibodies with an emphasis or relation to the analyte. Antibodies specific to the desired analyte are coupled to a unique bead region and are incubated with a sample. After washing away unbound materials, samples are incubated with a mixture of biotinylated detection antibodies and a streptavidin-phycoerythrin reporter. Using a Luminex instrument, the beads are excited by one laser to determine the bead region and corresponding assigned analyte. Another laser determines the magnitude of the streptavidin-phycoerythrin-derived signal, proportional to the analyte bound. Multiple readings are taken at each bead region, ensuring robust detection.

Recently, due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, there was the need to increase the level at which Covid-19 testing was being done. Problems and limitations were encountered due to some reasons and factors. There are new ways how to get tested if you are familiar with how elisa kits work they can also be helpful to determine when someone is carrying the virus.

Challenges encountered during Covid-19 testing.

• The demand-supply gap would be too enormous as the surge of cases was on the rise.
• Unavailability of tests in due time.

Typically, plenty of customers are under pressure to increase throughput and contain costs. With COVID-19 still in existence, those pressures are still there, but the testing demand has increased. The industry’s transition to sample-to-answer equipment removed the bottlenecks that more complex testing procedures would encounter in terms of process or reagents. However, it shifts possible bottlenecks in production throughput to the manufacturers, who still need reagents, buffers, and labware. Across the business, there has been a surge in demand for certain things. Customers that want to integrate Luminex instruments and assays into their labs should start by reading the Luminex white papers. Luminex began expanding up its production capacities as soon as it acquired its first EUA authorization to meet the global demand. Another innovation driver is Luminex’s partner model, which was developed in the company’s early days. It first assisted the company in the development of bead-based multiplexing technology, which includes both beads and the equipment that read them. Luminex assay Luminex to sabotage the situation in order to correct the restrictions and fix the difficulties.

Luminex has been a constant and great developer of several pieces of machinery and technological innovations already set in place to arrest the situation Covid-19 caused.

How Luminex assay helps in Covid-19 testing

Luminex started by working together with a PCR-based molecular diagnostics platform called ARIES. It received BARDA funding to provide support to the testing and commercialization of Covid-19 tests. This initiative by Luminex creates a flexible ground to increase the rate of testing. It also enables the testing laboratories to run plenty of multiplexed assays. Luminex has a huge advantage due to its ability to ensure the development of multiple platforms. This made it stand out among the other brands because most of them have just a single platform. The use of multiple platforms will aid how effectively a laboratory testing ability resonates with the skills of the personnel in charge. If personnel without experience are mandated to run an assay, they can run it efficiently and get the desired result. The multiple platforms can run plenty of tests of more than 100 days, with results trooping in just about 2 hours.

Advantages of multiplexing with Luminex assay

• Flexible nature: It aids in building panels that will work in line with the things you need for your assay.
• Time: It helps to save time as it does not take too much out of your time.
• Money: It is not expensive and can help you to save a huge amount of money.
• Variability: It helps to reduce variables obtained from an experiment with a lot of data points.

What do the Luminex Assays have to offer

• Availability: It can be gotten at short notice.
• Versatility: The pairs of antibodies will be tested in a bid to make sure mammalian recombinant protein expression is detected.
• Experience: This will offer the experience that comes with it as it is already an established and trusted assay system.