TRENDS IN IMMUNOASSAY TECHNOLOGIES

Five major trends in the development of immunoassay technology since t he 1960s are reviewed. The trends are: 1) the move away from radioisot ope labels to nonisotopic labels (e.g., luciferase, photoprotein, phos phor, electrochemiluminescent labels); 2) the development of ultrasens itive immunoassays (chemiluminescent substrates for enzyme labels, imm uno-PCR, microspot immunoassay); 3) automation of immunoassays; 4) sim ultaneous multianalyte immunoassays; and 5) assay simplification and d evelopment of immunoassays for point-of-care testing.