Development of bioanalysis: a short history

“The cutting edge of analysis is based around the ability to identify, quantify and locate analytes at the cellular level.” Historically, the initial drivers to measure the presence of drugs in biological fluids were to determine possible overdosing as part of the new science of forensic medicine/toxicology. The need to measure drug levels in biological fluids was further driven by the development of pharmacokinetics as a science in the 1930s. In the early days of drug development, many of the assays for drugs in biological fluids were nonspecific and did not discriminate between the drug and its metabolites; for example,...