Products address a niche in the environmental testing market by enabling the identification and quantification of specific pollutants or their biomarkers in fish, food and soil samples
Amersham Biosciences now offers a series of easy-to-use assays for detecting and measuring common environmental pollutants. These new products address a niche in the environmental testing market by enabling the identification and quantification of specific pollutants or their biomarkers in fish, food and soil samples.
This development is of particular interest in the light of recent findings of high and potentially harmful levels of organochlorine compounds, such as PCBs, in some farmed salmon. The six fully validated assays comprise four different enzyme-linked immunoassay (Elisa) systems for assaying vitellogenin in carp, fathead minnow, medaka, and zebrafish, as well as two enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for PCB and coplanar-PCB. With each assay being fully configured, scientists performing environmental testing will realise time savings in terms of assay development and optimisation.
"These new assay kits that can rapidly and accurately measure chemical pollutants in a range of fish species as well as those that are able to detect the well-known contaminant PCB, will save researchers substantial time in their experiments," says Rhona Macdonald, marketing director, core products at Amersham Biosciences.
"The vitellogenin assays can be used to detect and measure target proteins in complex biological samples derived from blood samples".
All of the assays are fully configured and validated to the same high level as existing assays from Amersham Biosciences.
The assays can be read using a standard colorimetric plate reader that accommodates 96-well plates.
They can also be adapted for use in automated screening applications.
