Agglutination-PCR (ADAP) is an ultrasensitive solution-phase method for detecting antibodies.[1] Antibodies bind to and agglutinate synthetic antigen–DNA conjugates, enabling ligation of the DNA strands and subsequent quantification by qPCR. Like other Immuno-PCR (IPCR) detection methods[2][3] ADAP combines the specificity of antibody-antigen recognition and the sensitivity of PCR. ADAP detects zepto- to attomoles of antibodies in 2 μL of sample with a dynamic range spanning 5–6 orders of magnitude. For example, ADAP allows to detect anti-thyroglobulin autoantibodies from human patient plasma with a 1000-fold increased sensitivity over an FDA-approved radioimmunoassay. ADAP also allows to simultaneously detect multiple antibodies in one experiment, much more than ELISA or radioimmunoassay.[citation needed]
The study published in the ACS Central Science journal mentioned that this testing method is 10,000 times more effective than the existing diagnostic techniques.[4][5]
Another advantage of ADAP method is the simplicity. It can be adapted to such a cheap equipment as, for example, SlipChip.[6][7] It does not require complex and expensive equipment, it does not require working with hazardous radioactive reagents.