Fundamentals and history of ELISA: The evolution of the immunoassays until invention of ELISA Chapter in Scopus

© The Author(s) 2018.Current chapter reviews background and history of the immunoassays until invention of ELISA. In that perspective, important evolutions in the field such as side-chain theory, antigen-antibody theory, discovery of the antibody structure, invention of radioimmunoassay (RIA), and invention of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are reviewed. The chapter, also describes the principles of the immune system such as antibody production in human body along with different classes of antibodies, as well as antigen-antibody coupling and specificity of such interaction. In that respect, the chapter also demonstrates sources for biomolecular interaction between the biomolecules. Dominant forces that are involved in physical interaction of the antigens and antibodies including hydrogen bonding (H-bonding), hydrophobic interaction, ionic attraction, and Van der Waals forces such as London dispersion force, dipole-dipole interaction, and ion-dipole interaction are introduced in great details.

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