The ELISA Training Series: Hands-on Workshops for Malaysian Researchers Since 2015

The need

ELISA detects and measures a protein in a sample. In Malaysian universities, hospitals and research institutes it is run by postgraduate students, researchers, laboratory staff and some clinicians working in basic research.

A result depends on how well each step is done: preparing reagents, standards and samples, coating, washing, incubation and detection. The plate reading must then become a standard curve, and a result fit for a thesis or a journal article. Researchers also need to choose a suitable kit, find the cause of a failed run, and decide when a multiplex assay, which measures many proteins in one small sample, suits them better.

What Prima Nexus did

Prima Nexus organised the earliest workshop on record in October 2015 at UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur, for up to 12 people. Most later sessions were one-day or half-day workshops in the host's own laboratory, often run with a department such as the Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory at Universiti Malaya or the Department of Human Anatomy at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

Participants worked in small groups through a full run, from reagent, standard and sample preparation through incubation, washing and detection to plate reading, data analysis and troubleshooting, using kits for targets such as cortisol, insulin, testosterone and BDNF. A short talk on multiplex immunoassays often ran during the incubation. Trainers included Surani Sukor (2016 to 2019) and Dr Ramya Dewi (2024 and 2025) of Prima Nexus.

In 2017 a pilot workshop at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) taught researchers to fit standard curves to their own data with free software, and one-day intensive workshops followed at Universiti Malaya and UPM in 2018. From 2024 the series added online webinars and the ImmunoAssay Workshop Mega Series, planned in five parts from ELISA basics to multiplex assays. In 2025 an ELISA Masterclass series combined online sessions with a hands-on day at UPM. Elabscience co-organised a 2024 workshop at UPM.

Prima Nexus was also invited to lead the ELISA day of the BRIMS Technical Workshop Series 2017 at Monash University Malaysia, to run a multiplex session at a healthy longevity workshop linked to iSIHAT 2017, and to share ELISA procedures with postgraduate researchers at UiTM Sungai Buloh in 2025.

Over the years

These counts come from Prima Nexus's own event records, some of which are incomplete, so the figures are minimums.

• 55 events on record from October 2015 to November 2025: 34 from 2015 to 2019, and 21 in 2024 and 2025.
• At least 18 universities and research institutes took part, as hosts or through their staff and students. UPM appears in 15 events, more than any other, followed by Universiti Malaya and UiTM.
• Prima Nexus organised or co-organised 52 of the 55 events, and was invited to train or speak at the other three.
• From 2024, at least eight events ran fully or partly online.
• The 22 events that recorded a head count had 422 participants between them. Most records give no number, so the full total is higher.

What it means for research teams

For a research team, the series is a way to train students and staff on a full ELISA run in their own laboratory, and to practise the data analysis and troubleshooting that turn a plate reading into a result. Teams that also need assays run on their samples can see our ELISA and Luminex services.

About Prima Nexus

Prima Nexus Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian research coordination group founded in 2014. It connects universities, research institutes and global technology partners, and runs eight scientific platforms under one roof: proteomics (including ELISA and Luminex multiplex immunoassays), genomics, flow cytometry, stem cell research, animal research, clinical trials, bioinformatics, and regulatory and grant support. Programmes it coordinates have supported more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and research teams at more than 40 institutions across Malaysia. More about Prima Nexus.