New and versatile optical-immunoassay instrumentation for water monitoring.

This article is a review of new and versatile optical-immunoassay instrumentation for water monitoring developed through two European Union projects, RIver ANAlyser (RIANA) and Automated Water Analyser Computer Supported System (AWACSS). Both projects utilise immunoassay techniques to isolate the analytes and Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) to quantify them. Completed in 1999, the RIANA project developed a sensitive and cost-effective analytical system capable of simultaneous detection of multiple-analytes in real-world water samples. The AWACSS project has been in progress since 2001 and is developing rugged-but-sensitive instrumentation that will detect up to 30 analytes simultaneously, will operate unattended, and will have networking capability.