Enzyme- Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) have had many thousands of applications over the past 25 yr The technique has been used in all fields of pure and applied aspects of biology, in particular it forms the backbone of diagnostic tech- niques The systems used to perform ELISAs make use of antibodies These are pro- teins produced in animals in response to antigenic stimuli Antibodies are specific chemicals that bind to the antigens used for their production thus they can be used to detect the particular antigens if binding can be demonstrated Conversely, specific antibodies can be measured by the use of defined antigens, and this forms the basis of many assays in diagnostic biology