Patent ID: 7341837
Filing Date: 2008-03-11
Classification: C12Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting a non-nucleic acid compound of interest in a biological or environmental sample comprising the steps of: a) providing a binding construct comprising an antibody or an antibody fragment portion which specifically recognizes and specifically binds said non-nucleic acid compound of interest without capture on a solid support, and a nucleic acid portion; b) mixing said binding construct with said biological or environmental sample in a solution mixture to form construct-compound complexes in solution without capture on a solid support, wherein said non-nucleic acid compound of interest in said biological or environmental sample becomes specifically bound to said binding construct; c) providing one or more surfaces, wherein said surfaces bear one or more accessible non-nucleic acid binding targets capable of specifically recognizing and specifically binding to said antibody or said antibody fragment portion of said binding construct; d) introducing said one or more surfaces to said solution mixture of said construct-compound complexes after said non-nucleic acid compound of interest in said biological or environmental sample has become bound to said binding construct in order for said one or more surfaces to form construct-surface complexes in solution with any unbound binding constructs resulting in said solution mixture containing essentially said construct-compound complexes and said construct-surface complexes; e) separating said construct-surface complexes from said solution mixture leaving behind said construct-compound complexes in solution; and f) detecting the presence or absence of said nucleic acid portion of said construct-compound complexes in solution after said separation step (e), said detection being done without the presence of any of said surfaces in connection with said construct-compound complexes that are being detected; wherein the presence of said nucleic acid portion of said construct-compound complexes indicates the presence of said non-nucleic acid compound of interest in said biological or environmental sample.