Cytokines are immune system molecules that cells use to send signals to each other. They are important for the recruitment of immune system molecules to the site of a pathogen. The discovery and identification of cytokines are an important part of biological research – they provide insight into the physiological processes and disease pathways, and can serve as biomarkers for various diseases.

Multiplexing technology has become an important tool in the detection of cytokines. multiplex cytokine assay service tests can be performed with high speed and accuracy by utilizing magnetic beads hundreds of specially prepared, or microspheres.

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Microspheres are internally dyed with a mixture of dyes to provide a unique spectral address – when mixed with a sample, molecules outside the ball react to any molecule that they are designed to capture. A detection molecule is then added, and they run through the instrument which determines the microsphere spectral address and quantifies the captured molecule signal, so that the contents of the sample reported.

Value multiplex analysis has been confirmed by research from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in the detection of cytokines. This work, completed by Luis D. Giavedoni, concluded with the creation of assay that can be used to detect the 20 non-human primates (NHP) cytokines and chemokines.