Bam Bamphysics
Activity 1.1.5 ELISA
1. Explain why the antibodies allow scientists to target and identify specific disease agents. The antibodies are specific to the antigen they destroy.
2. Why is the secondary antibody used in the ELISA test conjugated with an enzyme? What happens when this enzyme meets up with its substrate? The enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of the substrate and turns the solution blue.
3. Disease samples from two patients are collected and subjected to serial dilutions before running an ELISA. What does it mean if a disease can be detected in samples from one person at a dilution of 1/5 and in another patient at a dilution of 1/100? One patient has a higher concentration of antigens.
4. Describe a situation that illustrates why it is a good idea to complete the ELISA assay in triplicate? Repetition allows better precision of results.
5. Why do you think college students living in dorms are often populations who see the meningitis outbreaks? It spreads due to the dense population of dorms on campus.
6. How did the ELISA data allow you to track the path of the infection at the college? Using test results from patients, ELISA’s database allows you to confirm the spreading of the infection.
7. Discuss the limitations of using the antigen concentration to deduce the path of the infection. Be sure to refer to the workings of the human immune system. Overusing the antigen concentration can shut down your immune system and make your current state worse because of the virus. Your immune system may reject the antigen concentration and that won’t be good at all!
8. Using the information about how you completed this ELISA experiment, outline a procedure for testing for antibodies in the blood. Provide blood samples into separate wells. Inject a protein base into the wells. Add a primary antibody and provide a wash. Add the secondary antibody, then wash.
Finally input an enzyme and extract observations whether it oxidizes. If it
1. Explain why the antibodies allow scientists to target and identify specific disease agents. The antibodies are specific to the antigen they destroy.
2. Why is the secondary antibody used in the ELISA test conjugated with an enzyme? What happens when this enzyme meets up with its substrate? The enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of the substrate and turns the solution blue.
3. Disease samples from two patients are collected and subjected to serial dilutions before running an ELISA. What does it mean if a disease can be detected in samples from one person at a dilution of 1/5 and in another patient at a dilution of 1/100? One patient has a higher concentration of antigens.
4. Describe a situation that illustrates why it is a good idea to complete the ELISA assay in triplicate? Repetition allows better precision of results.
5. Why do you think college students living in dorms are often populations who see the meningitis outbreaks? It spreads due to the dense population of dorms on campus.
6. How did the ELISA data allow you to track the path of the infection at the college? Using test results from patients, ELISA’s database allows you to confirm the spreading of the infection.
7. Discuss the limitations of using the antigen concentration to deduce the path of the infection. Be sure to refer to the workings of the human immune system. Overusing the antigen concentration can shut down your immune system and make your current state worse because of the virus. Your immune system may reject the antigen concentration and that won’t be good at all!
8. Using the information about how you completed this ELISA experiment, outline a procedure for testing for antibodies in the blood. Provide blood samples into separate wells. Inject a protein base into the wells. Add a primary antibody and provide a wash. Add the secondary antibody, then wash.
Finally input an enzyme and extract observations whether it oxidizes. If it