OPTICAL IMMUNOASSAY

THIS PROJECT IS DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE THE APPLICABILITY OF BIOSTAR'S OPTICAL IMMUNOASSAY (OIA) FOR THE DETECTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF CYCLIC ADENOSINE MONOPHOSPHATE (CAMP). OIA HAS EXHIBITED THE ABILITY TO PROVIDE RAPID RESULTS WITH SENSITIVITY COMPARABLE TO THE BEST IMMUNOASSAY TECHNIQUES PRESENTLY AVAILABLE. EXCELLENT CLINICAL PREDICATIVE VALUE HAS ALSO BEEN SHOWN. OIA PROVIDES AN INEXPENSIVE, SENSITIVE, RAPID AND SIMPLE TECHNIQUE WITH THE PERFORMANCE ATTRIBUTES OF DOT-BLOT/MEMBRANE-BASED ASSAYS. OIA'S FLEXIBILITY ALLOWS FOR DESIGN OF QUALITATIVE, SEMI-QUANTITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ASSAYS FOR A WIDE RANGE OF ANALYTES. TECHNIQUES CAN BE DEVELOPED FOR BOTH INSTRUMENTED AND NON-INSTRUMENTED FORMATS OFFERING THE MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY IN CLINICAL TESTING. SCREENING OF A NUMBER OF ANTIBODIES SPECIFIC TO CAMP OR TO CGMP WILL ALLOW DEVELOPMENT OF ASSAYS FOR THESE ANALYTES WITH SENSITIVITY COMPARABLE TO A MODEL SYSTEM AND WITH THE SPECIFICITY REQUIRED FOR ACCURATE DISCRIMINATION OF CAMP AND CGMP. PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT WILL ADDRESS THE PREPARATION OF OPTICAL SURFACES FOR DETECTION OF CAMP OR CGMP AS WELL AS IDENTIFICATION OF ANTIBODIES WITH APPROPRIATE SENSITIVITY/SPECIFICITY CHARACTERISTICS TO COMPARE WITH EXISTING RIA'S. PHASE II WILL ADDRESS THE COLLEC- TION/HANDLING ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH RELEVANT SAMPLE MATRICES.