There are many reasons that your custom antibody should be tailored to meet your unique needs.
Contributed by Amy Archuleta
Begin with the end in mind when starting your custom antibody project.
Consider what you will expect of your antibody. Your research is unique. Do you need your antibody to distinguish between highly homologous protein family members? What applications will you be using for analysis? What species do you hope to test? With a team of experienced, expert scientists, Antibodies Inc is your one-stop-shop for all your custom antibody needs. We offer monoclonal, polyclonal, and nanobody antibody production. Our comprehensive suite of services also includes antibody purification, conjugation, and immunoassay analysis and development.
Seek out a custom antibody partner with scientists who understand the science.
When designing a custom antibody, it is essential to enlist scientists who have a deep understanding of how the immune system works to elicit the maximum immune response for your project. Here are some key concepts that a custom antibody designer should know.
Importance of B and T cell epitopes: A good antigen needs a B-cell epitope to bind to the BCR region of a B-cell, as well as a T-cell epitope that can be proteolytically cleaved in the B-cell and presented to recruit helper T-cells. See here for the full discussion written by our president, Will Fry PhD.
Antigen design: Both types of epitopes are necessary for optimal antibody production. Protein antigens often naturally have both B and T-cell epitopes. When using a small molecule or peptide as an antigen, a carrier molecule with a T-cell epitope must be conjugated to the molecule to generate a robust immune response. AI’s experts have decades of experience in designing effective antigens.
Host animal selection and clonality: Especially for highly-conserved proteins, selecting the appropriate host species as well as the clonality (monoclonal or polyclonal) can be the difference between success and failure. Our antibody design team is well-versed on both topics and knows how to overcome immune tolerance.
Antibodies Inc is your partner for BOTH monoclonal and polyclonal antibody production.
Monoclonal antibodies have broad utility as research reagents, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools. Monoclonal antibodies are highly reproducible and renewable reagents that offer a constant supply of specific antibody and remain one of the most popular antibody types in today’s market. Our scientists have optimized a platform to guide immunogen selection, the immunization schedule, and the hybridoma screening approach. Your project will be customized to meet your individual requirements. Read about our monoclonal service here.
Polyclonal antibodies have many advantages, including signal amplification and a potential for improved binding, both due to multiple epitope recognition. Antibodies Inc offers several hosts for polyclonal antibody production including chickens, rabbits, goats, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Our comprehensive development process includes immunogen selection, immunization schedule, ELISA reports, and purification. Click here to read about our polyclonal services.
Antigen conjugation and antibody purification are also important parts of the custom antibody process.
Conjugation: As described above, conjugating the correct molecule to small-molecule antigens is crucial for a good immune response. Different conjugate molecules are useful for purification, allowing for efficient protein or peptide coupling with solid supports. Still other conjugates such as fluorophores, enzymes, and biotin are essential in detection assays such as ELISA, Western blot, and IHC and ICC for visualization via fluorescence and chemiluminescence. Antibodies Inc has experience in conjugating molecules for every application. Read about our conjugation services here.
Purification: Once your antibody has been produced in the animal host, purification of the Ig molecules of interest away from other proteins can help reduce background noise and eliminate cross-reactivity. Antibodies Inc offers multiple purification methods including affinity purification, Protein A/G purification, and adsorption. Find the details of our purification offerings here.
Hybridoma scale-up: As an immortal source of mouse monoclonal antibodies, mouse monoclonal cell lines can be grown in small to large scale to produce the desired amount of antibody. Antibodies Inc offers both in vitro (bioreactor) and in vivo (ascites) production. The service includes cell-line expansion, production, and purification. More about our hybridoma scale-up service can be found here.
Immunoassays are an important step in the characterization of your antibody.
Once your antibody is produced and purified, it is still important to run tests to confirm that it is specific to the protein of interest and validate it in any applications that will be used in the study. Antibodies Inc can help with this as well! We are an ISO-13485 certified IVD manufacturer and specialize in antibody production and testing, antibody pair development and screening, as well as control slide production. We both design and perform ELISA assays depending on your specific requirements. Check out our immunoassay services here.
Antibodies Inc’s Antibody Development Group will be with you every step of the way to your next breakthrough!
View our custom antibody services flyer here!