Piezoelectric Detection of Ricin and Affinity-Purified Goat Anti-ricin Antibody

Detection of ricin, in a piezoelectric quartz crystal microbalance format, can be accomplished with the use of capture antibody techniques. These techniques allow for the specific attachment of ricin to immobilized capture antibodies on the quartz crystal transducer area. A reversed format can also be used to detect antibody in solution. In this case, the antigen is immobilized and antibody attaches specifically, thus increasing the overall mass and decreasing the resonant frequency. In this report we describe detection of both ricin and anti-ricin antibody using immunological piezoelectric quartz crystal microbalance techniques. Partial support for this research was supplied by an Army Phase II SBIR Grant #DAAA/5-92-C-0083 from the Department of Defense, Edgewood Arsenal.