Site-selective orientated immobilization of antibodies and conjugates for immunodiagnostics development

•Methods for site-selective orientated antibody immobilization are discussed, in particular to unconventional approaches.•Focus on methods employing site-specific chemical tools for creating covalent interactions.•Potential applications of the immobilized antibody systems are described.

Immobilized antibody systems are the key to develop efficient diagnostics and separations tools. In the last decade, developments in the field of biomolecular engineering and crosslinker chemistry have greatly influenced the development of this field. With all these new approaches at our disposal, several new immobilization methods have been created to address the main challenges associated with immobilized antibodies. Few of these challenges that we have discussed in this review are mainly associated to the site-specific immobilization, appropriate orientation, and activity retention. We have discussed the effect of antibody immobilization approaches on the parameters on the performance of an immunoassay.