A lot can happen in 310 million years. That’s the length of time, the phylogenetic distance, which separates humans and chickens from our most recent common ancestor [1].

In that time our immune systems, and proteomes in general, have diverged considerably and it is precisely because of this that chicken antibodies—IgY specifically—are so useful; a fact increasingly recognised and utilized by the research community.

Abcore is pleased to announce a new member of our team! Nancy Sapper has joined Abcore to focus on Custom Antibody Sales.

Nancy's focus is to provide premier level customer service to our existing and future clients and to fulfill all their custom antibody needs. She has vast experience in industry relations including identification of opportunities, one on one customer support, and customized programs and protocols to meet every antibody need.

To accompany the introduction of our llama antibody service we will be running this llama antibody blog.The last blog gave a quick introduction to llama antibodies, mainly:

• The antigen binding fragment of Llama antibodies consist of a single variable (VH) domain on a heavy chain (VHH)
• The heavy chain llama antibodies lack a light chain yet they are still fully capable of antigen binding

This time we look at the structure of llama antibodies in more detail.

Abcore is proud to partner with our new US Hub partner, ImmuQuest. ImmuQuest's mission is to work in partnership with the scientific community to deliver a unique and, wherever possible, exclusive range of quality antibodies for use in existing and emerging areas of scientific interest. They offer first class customer service and support, and in many cases our antibodies can be supplied in custom formats.

Abcore is in the process of transitioning our packaging materials to minimize waste. This was a concern we have wanted to address since our founding, and we finally found the best solution. We have been using industry standard insulated foam inner boxes, packing peanuts, and surrounded by an outer corrugated cardboard box. While this works well, it is a large amount of packaging and materials for sending out small, microliter volumes of antibodies.

One of the questions we get asked more than any other, is if the immunizing peptides used for a given antibody is available for purchase to be used in a competition assay or blocking assay. As useful as these are, few companies make them available for purchase. Luckily, Everest is one of the companies that do make their immunizing peptides available for purchase.

People are usually quite surprised when they learn that we have a promotion for custom rabbit antibody production for academic labs priced at only $395. We call it our $395 custom antibody special. Usually people quickly follow up by asking where we do our production, and ask about the cost of peptide synthesis (which is included). So we thought we would talk about why we do this promotion.

Spring conference season is in full swing. Abcore attended two Life Science Exhibits shows in San Francisco at the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay Campus on February 29, 2012, and the University of California, San Francisco, Parnassus Campus on March 1, 2012.