Patent ID: 8433523

Claim:
A method for determining presence or absence of viral antibodies of interest in a sample, comprising: mixing a first mixture, wherein the first mixture comprises: (a) the sample, and (b) a set of microparticles each having covalently bound thereto a viral group-reactive antibody which is reactive to a plurality of viruses within a virus group, wherein the set of microparticles comprises a plurality of subsets of microparticles, wherein a first subset of the set of microparticles comprises a first specific viral antigen bound to the viral group-reactive antibody, wherein the first specific viral antigen can bind to a first specific viral antibody of interest in the sample, and a second subset of the set of microparticles comprises a second specific viral antigen bound to the viral group-reactive antibody, wherein the second specific viral antigen can bind to a second specific viral antibody of interest in the sample; mixing a second mixture comprising the first mixture and a labeled reagent reactive with the first and second specific viral antibodies of interest; thereby permitting detection of binding of the viral antibodies of interest from the sample to the first specific viral antigen or the second specific viral antigen, analyzing the set of microparticles in the second mixture to determine the presence or absence of the first and second specific viral antibodies; and determining that the first specific viral antibodies are present when the first subset of microparticles is determined to have bound thereto the labeled reagent, determining that the second specific viral antibodies are present when the second subset of microparticles is determined to have bound thereto the labeled reagent, determining that the first specific viral antibodies are absent when the first subset of microparticles is determined to not have bound thereto the labeled reagent, determining that the second specific viral antibodies are absent when the second subset of microparticles is determined to not have bound thereto the labeled reagent, or combinations thereof.