bioassay meaning

• Noun: bioassay  `bIow'asey
  1. Appraisal of the biological activity of a substance by testing its effect on an organism and comparing the result with some agreed standard
     - bio-assay
  Verb: bioassay  `bIow'asey
  1. Subject to a bio-assay

  Derived forms: bioassaying, bioassayed, bioassays

  Type of: assay

  Encyclopedia: Bioassay

• 
  [Medicine]
  A method of measuring the effects of a biologically active substance using an intermediate in vivo or in vitro tissue or cell model under controlled conditions. It includes virulence studies in animal fetuses in utero,mouse convulsion bioassay of insulin,quantitation of tumor-initiator systems in mouse skin,calculation of potentiating effects of a hormonal factor in an isolated strip of contracting stomach muscle,etc. n : determination of the relative strength of a substance (as a drug) by comparing its effect on a test organism with that of a standard preparation — bio·as·say vt
  

Examples

1. the bod test is essentially a bioassay procedure.
2. a wide range of compounds related to adenine have been synthesized and tested in a number of bioassays.
3. determination of diarrhoea shellfish poison bioassay
4. determination of paralysis shellfish poison bioassay
5. optimization of agar diffusion bioassay for nisin