Abstract: The invention provides devices that improve tests for detecting specific cellular, viral, and molecular targets in clinical, industrial, or environmental samples. The invention permits efficient detection of individual microscopic targets at low magnification for highly sensitive testing. The invention does not require washing steps and thus allows sensitive and specific detection while simplifying manual operation and lowering costs and complexity in automated operation. In short, the invention provides devices that can deliver rapid, accurate, and quantitative, easy-to-use, and cost-effective tests.

Abstract: The invention features methods for rapidly and sensitively identifying molecular targets in medical, industrial, and environmental samples. The invention labels target molecules and then images them using large area imaging. Diagnostic tests based on the invention can be rapid, ultrasensitive, quantitative, multiplexed, and automated. A broad range of infectious agents (e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites) and molecules (e.g., proteins, DNA, RNA, hormones, and drugs) can be detected by the methods. The invention enables rapid, ultra-sensitive, cost-effective, and portable assays. The ability of the invention to detect low levels of target molecules rapidly and cost-effectively results from the combination of high intensity labeling, formats that facilitate rapid reaction kinetics, and large area imaging based using either instrumentation made from off-the-shelf commercial components or no instrumentation at all.

Abstract: The invention provides an improved method for sensitive and specific detection of target molecules, cells, or viruses. The inventive method uses large area imaging to detect individual labeled targets complexed with a target-specific selection moiety. The invention eliminates wash steps through the use of target-specific selection through one or more liquid layers that can contain optical dye and density agents. By eliminating washes the invention simplifies instrumentation engineering and minimizes user steps and costs. The invention uses sensitive image analysis to enumerate individual targets in a large area, is scalable, and can be deployed in systems ranging in complexity from manual to highly automated.