MULTIANALYTE IMMUNOASSAYS APPLICATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL-ANALYSIS

The demanding requirements for a practical screening technology for toxic organic chemicals, particularly in the aquatic environment, are not at present met by any of the available procedures. Recent advances in non-environment target application areas indicate that immunochemically-based simultaneous multi-analysis capabilities are feasible, Simunalysis - the simultaneous detection of a plurality of analytes by immunochemical techniques - would answer many of the requirements of pollution monitoring services. Simunalysis will be of immense value where the emphasis is on simplicity, avoidance of sample treatment, speed, sensitivity, a high degree of automation and acceptable cost. In this article we review published literature on multi-analysis and discuss likely ways ahead for the design and development of Simunalysis systems for environmental applications.