subject: All About Automate Immunoassay [print this page] Immunoassay is a procedure that is being practiced by laboratories as well as hospitals. This procedure is a biochemical test, which will determine the presence of a certain substance within a solution. Such a test will also measure the concentration of the substance in question, which will help laboratories determine certain conditions, which may pertain to a persons health, or the quality of a product. There are a number of ways that laboratories practice this, and one of the goals of modern technology today is to automate immunoassay. By automating it, there are a lot of benefits that a laboratory or company would be able to derive from it.
One of the techniques used for immunoassay is called ELISA or Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. This technique will help a laboratory to detect small quantities of certain types of molecules in different types of liquid as well as viscous solutions. Some of these solutions would include wine, milk, serum, and urine. In most cases, a lab would work with different assays such as sandwich, indirect, or competitive assays. Whichever kind of assay a laboratory is working on, protocols followed by ELISA would involve a lot of manual steps such as washing, dispensing, and incubation. These manual procedures actually affect the information that is to be derived from the solutions, aside from the fact that it is also prone to contamination and variability. On top of that, they are also time consuming, which will all result to higher costs incurred. This would call for a solution to automate immunoassay, so that such problems would be avoided, and lab procedures would be done in a smoother way.
Advantages in Automating Immunoassay
One of the most obvious advantages an automated immunoassay offers is the fact that it can prevent hazards in performing such tests in a laboratory, especially those that are mentioned on top.
There are a lot of functions of immunoassay and one of which is the diagnosing of illnesses. Serious illnesses that can be diagnosed with the use of immunoassay would include AIDS, hepatitis, and bouts of other diseases. It is also used to monitor medications of a patient, as well as to determine whether or not a person has fertility problems. When it comes to disease diagnoses, if a patient is confined in a hospital while that is being done, if the hospital is able to automate immunoassay, then he may not need to stay long and pay for extra fees since the test would be done in a swiftly manner.
How to Automate Immunoassay
Workstations are now being manufactured by various suppliers, in order to automate immunoassay. These workstations offer an attractive alternative to labor intensive protocols that are prone to errors. There are those that are made with robotic automation features, which are usually combined with high precision liquid handling capabilities.
Selection is the key in finding the most suited system that will automate immunoassay. Thus, it is important for the people involved to do vast research about the products available in the market today. With intensive fact finding, they will be able to compare automated immunoassay workstations effectively; thus, they will be able to determine which brands or models would suit them best in terms of their needs and their laboratory set up.
