Environmental analysis using antibody and receptor based techniques

Immunochemical analysis relies on the selective binding of antibodies to de fined targets such as environmental compounds. Commercial applications in t he environmental field are still restricted to a limited number of immunoas says and a few immunochromatographic applications. The main barrier to a br oader exploitation is seen in the generation of a sufficient number of anti bodies within an acceptable time period. Recombinant technologies are expec ted to eventually replace the circumstantial approach to obtain new Abs by new immunizations. Examples for recombinant singlechain fragments (scFv) an d antigen binding fragments (Fab) directed against herbicidal s-triazines a re given. If antibodies are replaced by receptors and other functional liga nds, biological effects monitoring becomes available. As an example an enzy me-linked receptor assay (ELRA) for endocrine disrupters providing estrogen equivalents is presented. Finally, the concept of bioresponse-linked instr umental analysis is introduced for the tight coupling of effect monitoring to chemical analysis. In the first step, analyte binding by functional biom olecules is recorded to provide binding equivalents. The second step is tar geted at chemical analysis of bioeffective analytes bound to the functional biomolecules.