Methods and apparatuses for performing immunoassays
AssigneeTechnicon Instruments Corporation
InventorsBruce J. Oberhardt, Leonard Ornstein
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses are featured for preconcentrating immunological reactants prior to their contact and reaction to enhance the rate of reaction for separating reacted and unreacted reactants and, also, to increase the sensitivity at the detector-measuring system. The preconcentration of the reactants finds particular use in immunoassays, where very often an immunospecies is very dilute causing a time consuming and/or insensitive assay. The preconcentration and separation are accomplished within the reaction medium resulting in a simplified and compact apparatus.
Claims14
A method of assaying a constituent of a fluid sample within a porous medium in which said constituent is caused to migrate, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) causing said constituent of said sample introduced into said medium to migrate within said medium;
- (b) limiting the migration of said constituent, so as to concentrate said constituent within a portion of said medium;
- (c) reacting said concentrated constituent with a reactant;
- and
- (d) monitoring the reaction between said constituent and said reactant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.