Patent ID: 7875435

Claim:
A method for assaying for the presence of at least one reagent in a liquid sample of microbial extracts, said method comprising: a) providing a first porous membrane to which a plurality of capture analytes have been bound wherein each capture analyte of said plurality binds to a reagent in the sample, if present; b) placing a liquid sample of microbial extracts comprising particulate and non-particulate material to be assayed and a multi-detection analyte in a chamber having a base defined by a second porous membrane through which membrane the particulate material cannot pass, wherein said multi-detection analyte comprises a plurality of detection compounds bound to a detectable element; c) allowing a sufficient period of time to pass for the plurality of detection compounds of the multi-detection analyte to bind to one or more reagents in the sample, if present, by virtue of an affinity of a detection compound for a reagent, thereby forming a complex between a reagent and the multi-detection analyte; d) contacting the base of the chamber with the first porous membrane; e) causing non-particulate material in the microbial extract to flow through the first and second porous membranes, thereby separating and removing particulate material from non-particulate material by filtration through the second porous membrane and permitting non-particulate material to flow through to the first porous membrane, under conditions sufficient for the complex at (c) to bind to a capture analyte on the first porous membrane, thereby forming a complex between the multi-detection analyte and at least one reagent in the sample and a capture analyte; and f) detecting the detectable element in the complex formed at (e) wherein the presence of said detectable element indicates the presence of at least one reagent in the sample.