The ability to detect biomarkers with ultrahigh sensitivity radically transformed biology and disease diagnosis. However, owing to incompatibilities with infrastructure in current biological and medical laboratories, recent innovations in analytical technology have not yet been adopted broadly. Here, we report a simple, universal ‘add-on’ technology (dubbed EASE) that converts the ordinary sensitivities of common bioassays to extraordinary ones, and that can be directly plugged into the routine practices of current research and clinical laboratories. The assay relies on the bioconjugation capabilities and ultrafast and localized deposition of polydopamine at the target site, which permit a large number of reporter molecules to be captured and lead to detection-sensitivity enhancements exceeding three orders of magnitude. The application of EASE in the ELISA-based detection of the HIV antigen in blood from patients leads to a sensitivity lower than 3 fg ml⁻¹. We also show that EASE allows for the direct visualization, in tissues, of the Zika virus and of low-abundance biomarkers related to neurological diseases and cancer immunotherapy.

具有超高灵敏度检测生物标志物的能力从根本上改变了生物学和疾病诊断。但是，由于当前生物和医学实验室的基础设施不兼容，分析技术的最新创新尚未得到广泛采用。在这里，我们报告了一种简单的通用“附加”技术（称为EASE），它将普通生物测定法的普通灵敏度转换为非常规方法，并且可以直接插入当前研究和临床实验室的常规操作中。该测定法依赖于聚多巴胺在目标部位的生物结合能力以及超快速和局部沉积，从而可以捕获大量报告分子，并导致检测灵敏度提高超过三个数量级。^-1。我们还显示，EASE可以在组织中直接显示Zika病毒以及与神经系统疾病和癌症免疫疗法有关的低丰度生物标志物。