Heterogeneous Immunoassays Can Be Seamlessly Consolidated.

The AU3000i, from Olympus, is a high throughput immunoassay analyser designed to enable high volume laboratories to consolidate immunoassay and clinical chemistry testing on an all Olympus platform. The AU3000i achieves 240 tests/hour consistently through its double incubation ring.

This enables one- and two-step assays to be run concurrently. Similarly, the loading of bulk solutions and consumables has been designed to avoid interruption to ongoing testing. High quality assay design has taken advantage of real advances in antibody selection, as well as utilising state-of-the-art paramagnetic microparticle technology as the solid phase.

Measurement of analyte concentration is by highly sensitive chemiluminescence detection. Not only has this resulted in minimal variability, it also raises the bar in terms of accuracy and precision. Final results for the TSH assay for example show 4th generation performance. The initial menus for the AU3000i will comprise thyroid, fertility, tumour- and cardiac markers followed rapidly by allergy and anaemia.