Assay development and optimisation

There is a big difference between the development of a new assay and a good new assay. At Total Scientific, we have extensive experience in assay development, including multiplex assays, and we use all of this experience to help develop the assay that you require.

Our particular expertise is in the development of immunoassays. The use of antibodies in assay development is commonplace, but the design and development of a good assay requires a practical understanding of the use of antibodies, including competition, avidity vs. affinity and buffer design.

We have a variety of techniques at our disposal for assay development and validation. Simple protein assays may be developed using a traditional ELISA.  However, alternative techniques such as binding analysis using SPR Biacore or fluorescence polarization may be more suitable depending on the  ultimate aim of the assay .  In addition, we have Luminex technology in-house, and can develop multiplex assays if required.

However, beyond the simpler protein assays, we also have expertise in developing more complex functional assays for clients, such as proliferation assays, cytotoxicity assays and migration assays. We have a full cell culture suite for growing and working with cell lines or primary cell cultures at biohazard containment level 2 and also have pre-existing ethical approval for us to obtain blood samples from healthy human volunteers for the development and optimisation of assays aimed at discovering or evaluating biomarkers of human disease.

Regardless of the assay developed, a full understanding of the steps required to validate that assay for your use is essential. We have been developing and validating biomarker assays for many years, and understand the factors that need to be controlled and considered in the assay validation process.

Please contact us today for a no-obligation quotation.