The Importance of Professional Custom Antibody Production
Professional custom antibody production facilitates the creation of antibodies that recognize a specific antigen, for applications that commercially available antibodies cannot undertake. The development of this class of reagents involves multiple steps and requires expertise in the fields of immunology, protein engineering, antibody characterization, and quality control.
The process of eliciting an immune response is one of the most critical components in both polyclonal and monoclonal antibody production. The immunizing agent, or target antigen, must be able to elicit a strong antibody response that can effectively bind to the targeted epitope. It is also essential that the antigen be soluble enough to be readily introduced into an antibody cell, for a successful antibody response.
Professional Custom Antibody Production: Ensuring Precision and Quality
Once the antibodies have been isolated, they are subjected to a series of purification and characterization steps to ensure that the mAbs meet quality standards. These steps include determining the antibody’s binding affinity for the target antigen (KD determination), identification of the antibody’s immunoglobulin class and subclass (epitope mapping), and analyzing its structural integrity, purity, and absence of contaminants.
Depending on the type of antibody required, the antibody characterization stage may be followed by a numbering step. This is to enable the antibodies to be traced back to the original cell line used in their production, ensuring consistency across different mAb batches. It can also assist with selecting the optimal antibody for a particular application, such as flow cytometry, which has stringent requirements for antibody stability.