A method of detecting and/or measuring the amount of a paralytic shellfish toxin (PST) present in a sample, comprising the steps of: 1) providing an isolated and purified saxiphilin, or fragment thereof which contains a saxitoxin binding site; 2) contacting it with the sample; 3) mearsuring binding of PST contained in the sample to said isolated and purified saxiphilin; and correlating the amount of binding with either the presence or absence of PSTs in the sample or with the PST concentration in the sample.
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