This experiment involves a mock outbreak of an infectious disease within our classroom. After the spreading is over we will use the process of ELISA to see who has the disease. Antibodies are Y shaped proteins that specifically bind to a certain foreign antigen. Millions of antibodies are made and destroyed every ten minutes. There are two types of antibodies primary and secondary. Primary antibodies bind specificially to the antigen, while secondary antibodies are usually made from a different species and bind to the primary antibodies. In the real world Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay is used for pregnancy tests, disease detection in animals and plants, as well as drug use etc.
Procedure:
Antigen is added to a microplate strip and incubates until bound/ washed with detergent.
Next primary antibody solution is added to the wells and allowed to bind/ than the unbound is washed away.
Next the secondary antibodiy is added and allowed to bind to the primary antibody, and than washed away.
Next a chromogenic enzyme is added and allows color to develop if there was binding earlier.
