Very generally, ELISA is an assay that allows for you to detect/quantify the presence of an antigen or an antibody, depending on the specific test used/purpose. Usually, ELISA diagnostic tests will adsorb an antigen of interest and patient serum is applied to determine whether an antibody specific to that antigen is present. For lab research, ELISAs can be handy to quantify antibody titres for experiments (which is what I use ELISAs for) among other things
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