Patent ID: 7322927

Claim:
A method for determining the presence or amount of an analyte of interest, said method comprising: forming a reaction mixture comprising said analyte and a population of fluorescent particles comprising receptors specific for said analyte; capturing fluorescent particles bound to said analyte on a solid phase; and generating a fluorescent signal from captured fluorescent particles, wherein said fluorescent particles comprise: a first compound selected from the group consisting of silicon phthalocyanine bis(dimethylhexylvinylsilyloxide) and silicon phthalocyanine bis(trihexylsilyloxide); and a second compound that is a bis(dimethylhexylvinylsilyloxide)-substituted or bis(trihexylsilyloxide)-substituted phthalocyanine, naphthalocyanine, or anthranylocyanine derivative, or a bis(dimethylhexylvinylsilyloxide)-substituted or bis(trihexylsilyloxide)-substituted hybrid phthalocyanine derivative, wherein the size of said fluorescent particle is between 0.1 nm and 5000 nm, and wherein said first compound differs in structure from said second compound.