Development of an automated handheld immunoaffinity fluorometric biosensor

A new immunoaffinity fluorometric biosensor has been developed for detecting and quantifying aflatoxins, a family of potent fungi-produced carcinogens that are commonly found in a variety of agriculture products. They have also been cited as a biological agent under weapons development. The handheld, self-contained biosensor is fully automatic, highly sensitive, quick, quantitative, and requires no special storage. Concentration from 0.1 parts per billion to 50 ppb can be determined in less than 2 minutes with a 1 ml sample volume. Higher concentrations can be determined by simply reducing the sample volume. The device operates on the principles of immunoaffinity for specificity and fluorescence for a quantitative assay. The analytic procedure is flexible so that other chemical and biological analytes could be detected with minor modifications to the current device.