The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the gold standard method for detecting and quantifying antigens and antibodies. The degree of detection depends on the quality of the reagents used (e.g. specific and sensitive antibodies) as well as the performance of the detection platform. Many different substrate varieties have been developed (e.g. absorbance, fluorescence, chemiluminescence, electrochemiluminescence) for use on various platforms (e.g. solid support 96-well plates, bead-based matrices, visual dot and lateral flow formats). While simplicity of the assay is a key advantage, the inability to detect multiple parameters simultaneously (multiplex) is a significant disadvantage. The specificity of the ELISA is dictated by the antibodies used which can be highly selective. Immunoassay sensitivity (limits of detection) is often respectable but is inferior to nucleic acid-based methods (e.g. PCR).