Appeal No. 1999-1384
Application No. 08/583,912
Claims 1, 9 and 25 are illustrative of the subject matter on appeal and are
reproduced below:
1. A quantitative assay method for detecting a target analyte, comprising
the steps of:
providing a porous membrane having binding elements immobilized
thereon, each of said binding elements having at least one binding site
capable of specifically binding to said target analyte;
exposing said binding sites to a labelled analog of the target
analyte to form complexes of membrane-immobilized binding elements
and labelled analogs;
pumping a first aqueous liquid sample, suspected of containing the
target analyte, so as to flow said first liquid sample normal to and
through said membrane having said complexes thereon, at a flow rate
allowing the target analyte to displace the labelled analog from the
complexes under non-equilibrium conditions to form downstream of
said membrane a flowable liquid effluent including said displaced
labelled analog, said flow rate also providing an interaction time
between said analyte and said membrane of about 0.1 sec through
about 30 sec;
interrogating said flowable liquid effluent to detect and
quantitatively determine the amount of the displaced labelled analog,
the amount of said displaced labelled analog being proportional to the
concentration of said target analyte in said first sample.
9. A device for the assay of an aqueous sample suspected of containing
a target analyte, comprising;
a porous membrane having binding elements immobilized thereon,
each of said binding elements having at least one binding site capable
of specifically binding to said target analyte, essentially all of said
binding sites on said membrane being occupied by a labelled analog
of the target analyte to form complexes of membrane-immobilized
binding elements and labelled analogs;
a pump for flowing an aqueous liquid sample, suspected of
containing the target analyte, normal to and through said membrane
having said complexes thereon, at a flow rate allowing the target
analyte to displace the labelled analog from the complexes under non-
equilibrium conditions to form downstream of said membrane a
flowable liquid effluent including said displaced labelled analog, said
flow rate also providing an interaction time between said analyte and
said membrane of about 0.1 sec through about 30 sec; and
a detector that interrogates said flowable liquid effluent and the
presence of said labelled analog therein.
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