Technology Profile
To address high costs for analyzing toxic substances in the environment as well as the need for more sensitive indicators of exposure to humans, University of California (UC), Davis SRP Center researchers pioneered the use of immunoassay technologies to detect hazardous chemicals. Immunoassays use antibodies to bind to a chemical of interest, and labels on the antibodies measure the presence and concentration of the chemical.
| Technology | As part of an SRP-funded project, UC Davis SRP Center researchers and colleagues developed simple and sensitive immunoassay tools that can be used to detect hazardous chemicals. Immunoassays use antibodies to bind to a chemical of interest. Labels on the antibodies are used to detect this binding, which measures the presence and concentration of the chemical. |
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| Innovation | In general, using this immunoassay technology is more than 10 times cheaper than traditional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detection methods and is easy to scale up for screening large numbers of samples. |
| Contaminant and Media | Building off of the SRP-funded work, the research team has developed more than 40 immunoassays for pesticides, pesticide metabolites, and other environmental contaminants. The immunoassays can be used to measure contaminants in water samples from the environment as well as the levels that humans are exposed to using their urine. |
| Principal Investigator | Bruce Hammock, Ph.D.; Natalia Vasylieva, Ph.D. |
| Institution | University of California, Davis |
| Grant Number | P42ES004699 |