On-line immunoanalysis for bioprocess control.

Immunoanalytical techniques such as ELISA are often used for the detection of proteins produced in cultivation processes. Owing to the difficulty of automating of the time-consuming traditional ELISA, there is an intense demand for a suitable on-line monitoring method. Combining well-known immunoassays with the FIA technique, we present the heterogeneous and the turbidimetric immuno-FIA methods. The following proteins were investigated with these FIA methods: thermostable pullulanase, IgG, antithrombin III, and recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator. In the cases of pullulanase and monoclonal mouse IgG, the turbidimetric immuno-FIA was used for on-line analysis of the cultivation process. Results are presented here to demonstrate the effectiveness and application of these immunoanalysis.