Lu, J.Martin, J.Lu, Y.Zhao, J.Yuan, J.Ostrowski, M.Paulsen, I.Piper, J.Jin, D.2015-06-092015-06-092012Analytical Chemistry, 2012; 84(22):9674-96780003-27001086-4377http://hdl.handle.net/2440/91932We report a highly sensitive method for rapid identification and quantification of rare-event cells carrying low-abundance surface biomarkers. The method applies lanthanide bioprobes and time-gated detection to effectively eliminate both nontarget organisms and background noise and utilizes the europium containing nanoparticles to further amplify the signal strength by a factor of similar to 20. Of interest is that these nanoparticles did not correspondingly enhance the intensity of nonspecific binding. Thus, the dramatically improved signal-to-background ratio enables the low-expression surface antigens on single cells to be quantified. Furthermore, we applied an orthogonal scanning automated microscopy (OSAM) technique to rapidly process a large population of target-only cells on microscopy slides, leading to quantitative statistical data with high certainty. Thus, the techniques together resolved nearly all false-negative events from the interfering crowd including many false-positive events.en© 2012 American Chemical Societyovarian cancerJournal article003001954610.1021/Ac302550u0003124348000042-s2.0-84869480837166923Zhao, J. [0000-0002-5883-6017]