MULTIANALYTE IMMUNOASSAYS APPLICATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL-ANALYSIS

The demanding requirements for a practical screening technology for to xic organic chemicals, particularly in the aquatic environment, are no t at present met by any of the available procedures. Recent advances i n non-environment target application areas indicate that immunochemica lly-based simultaneous multi-analysis capabilities are feasible, Simun alysis - the simultaneous detection of a plurality of analytes by immu nochemical techniques - would answer many of the requirements of pollu tion monitoring services. Simunalysis will be of immense value where t he emphasis is on simplicity, avoidance of sample treatment, speed, se nsitivity, a high degree of automation and acceptable cost. In this ar ticle we review published literature on multi-analysis and discuss lik ely ways ahead for the design and development of Simunalysis systems f or environmental applications.