Immunoassay chip for URICASE protein using histidine-immobilization technique

This paper presents a nickel-coated immunoassay chip fabricated by electroplating technology for Uricase protein. The Taguchi method was adopted to determine the optimal electroplating condition. The considered factors that affect the performance of nickel-coated chip included current density of electroplating, operation temperature, and pH of electroplating buffer, etc. As a result of systematic electroplating approach, a stable and optimal chip surface was obtained. Due to the physical adsorption between intermediate metal and protein, this chip provides specific binding with His-tagged Uricase. In addition, it offers self-assembling and directional molecule immobilization on the surface of chip. The immunoassay was performed for verification. This nickel-coated chip can be used not only for His-tagged Uricase but for any His-tagged proteins in the pathological analyses with inexpensive microarray chip design.