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Introduction & Key Terms

Immunoassays are screening tools that use antibodies to give you an idea of what types of substances may be present in a sample. Common applications of immunoassays in daily life include pregnancy tests and drug screens. This webpage will focus on the applications of immunoassays in toxicology.

There are a few important definitions to understand when talking about immunoassays that can help make sense of how they work.

Antibody: A protein produced in the body due to the introduction of a foreign substance. These bind to the substance.

Antigen: The foreign substance the body is producing an immune response to.

Ligand: The substance being measured by the assay.



Heterogeneous Assays

Heterogeneous assays a wash step to separate the bound and unbound antigen after the reaction has taken place. They require less sample prep but more steps overall than homogeneous assays, and are good for analyzing messy samples like blood and decomposition fluid [644].



Homogeneous Assays

Homogeneous assays are fast and adaptable assays that are designed for the detection of smaller compounds than heterogeneous assays. They require more sample prep, but fewer steps, and so are well-suited to urine analysis because the matrix of urine is less complex.



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Further Reading