Sunday, 26 January 2014

The Validation Of Antibodies

By Armand Zeiders


Whether you are a biologist or a medical researcher you know that antibodies are one of the most important tools to materialize research. It may be given that these proteins are naturally produced by our bodies, for research purposes most of the antibodies used are created in laboratories by biotechnology firms and are known as custom monoclonal antibodies or custom polyclonal antibodies.

Of course, while this custom antibody service is helpful and important, there is a problem that needs to be addressed. There are actually no universal guidelines that set forth a way to assure the validation of these antibodies. This basically means that the antibodies created by one biotech firm could be vastly different than the antibodies produced by another biotech firm. So if you are a researcher and you want to ensure valid results of your study, you need to also ensure that these reagents are the specific antibodies you want and also are selective and reproducible.

In addition, even when the over-the-counter medicines and prescription drugs pass through a great deal of scrutiny by our U.S. Food and Drug Administration one will find that no federal guidelines have actually been set in terms of the validation of these antibodies and visibly no government agency imposing standards which will guarantee quality. With that, every scientist and researcher need to make sure that they have a reliable source for such antibodies and to do that they should be selective and perform their own validation of the antibodies.

In determining the validity of the antibody, one testing method which can be used is the Rimm Lab algorithm. A Western blot or protein immunoblot analysis is being utilized in this particular method in order to determine validity. This process actually comes inclusive of several steps before it can be concluded that you are able to determine if the antibody you have comes from one reliable source. The first of which is the determination of antibody specificity and to further go, a tissue microarray is used for validation.

Because these studies involving antibodies have such far-reaching possibilities in terms of their effect on mankind, it is essential that scientists find a reputable source for these custom monoclonal and custom polyclonal antibodies. The biotech firm that you select should have a proven protocol in place for determining the validation of these antibodies.

An example is that there is quality testing done in biotech firms for antibodies via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or ELISA. For the complete quality-control check needed by the biotech company in this regard, this is but just a part. In order to establish antibody specificity, the use of pre-immune sera is also very much viable. It is definitely a plus factor that the firm where you get your antibody service comes with guaranteed work results but it is also a "must" for you to do labs test by maybe using the aforementioned Rimm Lab algorithm.




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