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Immunoassays in Biotechnology
Citation:
VAN EMON, J. M. Immunoassays in Biotechnology. Edition 2, Chapter 1, Editor in Chief M 659Moo-Young (ed.), The Elsevier Encyclopedia Comprehensive Biotechnology. Elsevier BV, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, , 659-667, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Immunoassays have broad applications for a wide variety of important biological compounds and environmental contaminants. Immunoassays can detect the presence of an antigen in the human body, a pollutant in the environment, or a critical antibody in a patient’s serum to develop a correct diagnosis. Immunoassays have been used to follow the progression of a disease, to design a course of therapy, as well as to map a contaminated water plume to design a remediation strategy. The technology has proved to be adaptable as new analytical targets (e.g., carbon nanoparticles and prions) and issues (e.g., biomarker discovery and proteomics) arise. Specific antibodies, produced for targets of human health and environmental concern, have been configured into various method formats for the detection of a continually expanding list of pesticides, industrial chemicals, products of xenobiotic metabolism, cellular components, hormones, proteins, drugs and other targets.