Here, "label free" seems to mean that the detection is done more or less directly, instead of relying on a consumable extra material (the label) that binds to t

Here, "label free" seems to mean that the detection is done more or less directly, instead of relying on a consumable extra material (the label) that binds to the thing being searched for, thus marking it. At least that's my understanding after trying to goog my way out of that confusion for a few seconds. See [1] for instance, or [2] but that seems to be focusing on maas spectroscopy. [1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/label-free-quantification https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-a... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Label-free_quantification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Label-free_quantification