Patent ID: 7384798

Claim:
A method of detecting analytes in a microfluidic sample, comprising: introducing at least one type of analyte, at least one type of carrier particle, and a fluid into a mixing chamber of a system, whereby the at least one type of analyte binds to a site on the at least one type of carrier particle to form a microfluidic suspension including at least one analyte-bound particle suspended in the fluid; separating, in an optical detection chamber, the at least one analyte-bound particle from the fluid by exposing the suspension to physical forces, magnetic forces, or combinations thereof; altering, in the optical detection chamber, a spectrophotometric property of an other solution introduced into the optical detection chamber using the at least one analyte-bound particle; and measuring, in the optical detection chamber, the altered spectrophotometric property with an optical detection system; wherein the system includes: a rotatable coupon; and a plurality of tracks defined in the rotatable coupon, each of the plurality of tracks including at least one respective fluid reservoir, a respective mixing chamber, and a respective optical detection chamber.