PROCESS FOR DETECTING BIOCHEMICAL SPECIES AND APPARATUS USEFUL THEREIN

摘要

Process for detecting even small quantities of biochemical entities, e.g. specific monoclonal antibodies, while said biochemicals are maintained in situ within a reservoir containing a culture medium. In a typical embodiment of the invention, a labelled probe in the presence of a specific antibody to be detected is selectively attached to a substrate (20), e.g. a magnetic substrate, by bioaffinity technique; then magnetically conveyed for inspection to a predetermined transparent portion of the reservoir wall (52) at which point it is inspected. The substrate serves as means to block all substantial interference either from the background radiation of the culture medium (22) or from any residual unused labelled probe material (26) in the medium.