Custom Antibody Production
Abcore offers the following services for making custom antibodies:
- Custom Rabbit Antibodies
- Custom Chicken Antibodies
- Custom Goat Antibodies
- Custom Llama Antibodies
- Ascites Production
Click the above links to quickly go to each service page, or find more information below.
Abcore Advantages:
- Custom antibodies produced at USDA licensed facilities in the United States
- Short protocols available for research antibody development
- Longer custom antibody protocols available for large quantity needs
- Free peptide design including analysis of peptide sequence, hydrophobicity, secondary structure, and antigenicity
- Fast, high quality peptide synthesis also performed within the Unites States
- Certified animal technicians with over 20 years of experience
- All custom antibody development services are confidential
- Newly constructed, state of the art ascites production facility
The Abcore custom antibody facilities are located in Southern California. The local climate is mild year round and allows the animals to be housed in “open air” facilities. This natural environment, along with constant attention to the health and comfort of our animals leads to a better immune response and higher quality antibody production.
Antigen Selection for Custom Antibody Projects
Antigen selection is very important for any antibody production project. Antigens typically come from 4 sources:
- Full length protein isolated from tissue or cells
- Recombinant protein which is either full length, or a subdomain of the protein of interest
- Semi-purified protein which has been isolated, and excised from an SDS-PAGE gel
- Synthesized peptide
Each of these immunogens has advantages and disadvantages over each other. Custom antibodies raised against recombinant proteins or protein fragments might react with a non-linear sequence on the surface of the protein, or a surface fold. This is great if you are doing ELISA, flow cytometry, or microscopy. However, if the protein is denatured, this surface fold or non-linear sequence might be destroyed so the antibody would not work for Western blots. Also, native or recombinant proteins may not be available for your custom antibody project.
On the other hand, peptide antigens are easily synthesized and can be selected using sequence alignments to have minimal cross-reactivity with other proteins. But, if this linear peptide sequence is buried within the protein when it is folded in it's native state, this antibody might not work for non-denatured applications like flow cytometry or immunohistochemistry. It would be great for Western blotting.
Abcore provides free antigen design to assist in selection of the best possible peptide sequence for eliciting the desired antibody response. We use the latest in software with the proper algorithms to assess antigenicity, hydrophilicity, flexibility, secondary structure and aggregation potential. Please take advantage of this free assistance.
Abcore's USDA registration number for custom antibody production is 93-R-0541.