US life sciences tools group Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) announced on Wednesday the launch of its Simple Plex Ultra-Sensitive Assays for the Ella automated benchtop platform, expanding its immunoassay portfolio.

The assays are designed to detect low-abundance proteins in blood at femtogram concentrations, addressing longstanding sensitivity limits in accessible biofluids and supporting research into Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and traumatic brain injury.

They aim to enable reliable quantification of validated neurodegenerative biomarkers, including NFL, GFAP, pTau 217 and Amyloid β (aa1-42), to identify early biological changes linked to disease onset, progression and treatment response. An automated microfluidic immunoassay workflow reduces manual steps and variability, delivering results in under three hours.

Designated for research use only, the assays are intended to improve reproducibility, throughput and data quality in high-throughput neuroscience studies.

The launch builds on Ella's established performance, with the platform cited in more than 200 neurology-focused peer-reviewed publications and more than 1,000 publications overall.