In this thesis lectin panels on gold wafers were utilized to investigate sera from different mammals and meat juices from various species of animals. Lectins, which are a group of diverse, natural proteins recognize and bind to different carbohydrate structures present on the sera proteins and on the proteins in the different meat juices. The binding patterns from the relatively unspecific interactions between lectins and carbohydrate structures were evaluated with techniques based on ellipsometry. The resulting data was treated with multivariate data analysis (MVDA) techniques, especially principal component analysis (PCA), to identify separation or grouping of data.

It was shown that lectin panels combined with ellipsometric techniques and MVDA could be used to separate sera from different mammals and also a possible relation between species could be seen. Meat juices from the different species evaluated were also possible to separate and using a simple model based on an artificial neuronal net, it was also possible to classify meat juices from the mammals investigated. In spite of its great analytical potential, not much work has yet been done utilizing MVDA together with bioanalytical methods. The results in this thesis however, show great potential for combining lectin panels with MVDA.

This work, regarding lectin panels, was incorporated as a part of a EU-project, Nanocell. The aim of the Nanocell-project was to develop a biosensor consisting of a single biomolecule electrically interfaced to nanoelectrodes, which is sensed electronically/optically.