Immuno-affinity interactions in sample preparation and analysis

Sammanfattning: Immuno-affinity interactions (antibody-antigen) belong, together with enzyme-inhibitor/substrate/coenzyme; oligosaccharide-lectin; DNA/RNA-protein interactions etc, to the class of bio-recognition. Immuno-affinity is widely used for analysis in immunoassays with numerous applications in a variety fields (i.e. environment, foodstuffs, clinical, pharmaceutical, diagnosis, etc.). Recently, the immuno-affinity interaction was exploited also in the sample preparation area, leading to techniques such as immuno-affinity extraction, immuno-affinity precipitation and immuno-affinity filtration, and a substantial development of an area that for a long time was neglected. In this context, a novel immuno-affinity based sample preparation technique called Immuno Supported Liquid Membrane (ISLM) extraction is presented in this thesis. The technique allows sample cleanup and analyte enrichment in a single device that comprises both the extraction and immunoassay (imuno extraction-assay). The thesis details the development, optimisation as well as implementation aspects of the ISLM extraction, demonstrating the versatility of the technique.