Why Magnetic Beads Have Several Advantages Over Direct Coupling

The use of magnetic beads as the solid phase in ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) has several advantages over direct coupling to the wells. These advantages include an increased available surface area and an even distribution of beads throughout the sample providing rapid and sensitive detection of low analyte concentrations (1. Liabakk et al).

When Dynabeads® are used as the solid phase, the capture antibody is coupled to the beads in bulk, which ensures high reproducibility and eliminates the need to perform QC of each plate with antibody coupling.

Magnetic beads have thus become the gold standard for companies that provide and develop immunodiagnostic assays. By automating tedious manual wash steps, beadbased ELISAs may also get used in research labs in the future. 

Using Dynabeads® in combination with the HydroFlex™ plate washer confi gured for magnetic bead washing, it is possible to run bead-based ELISA with the convenience of the 96-well plate format and the ease of handling known from traditional well-based ELISA.