In fields such as environmental monitoring, disease diagnosis, and drug development, the rapid and accurate analysis of biological samples is crucial. However, traditional analysis methods often face the following challenges: samples are susceptible to contamination, and manual operations are prone to errors; high reagent consumption is a disadvantage, especially for the analysis of precious biological samples; the operational process is cumbersome, and sample preparation and detection often require separate steps, leading to low efficiency.

In the microscopic world, enabling complex 3D motions in micron-scale machines has long been a scientific challenge. Traditional micromachines are confined to 2D planar motion, limiting their ability to perform multitasking operations in complex microenvironments.

In medical diagnostics and disease management, rapid and accurate protein biomarker detection is critical. Conventional methods like ELISA offer accuracy but suffer from lengthy procedures (2-3 hours), operational complexity, and high costs. Professor Zhang Shuailong and Fu Rongxin’s team at Beijing Institute of Technology recently unveiled a breakthrough in Nano Letters: an electroosmotic-driven digital optofluidics (e-DOF) platform. This innovation quantifies protein-binding nanoscale deformations via hyperspectral interferometry, slashing detection time to 15 minutes with 0.21 nM sensitivity (50× improvement over ELISA) and 100% clinical accuracy.

In modern science, a technology that harnesses the combined power of light and electricity to manipulate microscopic objects—​​Optoelectronic Tweezers (OET)​​—stands as a marvel.

A multidisciplinary team from Beijing Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, and other institutions has published groundbreaking research titled "Automated Electroosmotic Digital Optofluidics for Rapid and Label-Free Protein Detection" in Nano Letters.

Optoseeker collaborated on groundbreaking optoelectronic tweezers (OET) research, "Automated and collision-free navigation of multiple micro-objects in obstacle-dense microenvironments using optoelectronic tweezers," published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering.