Antibody suppliers

We have seen that antibody research can deliver progress in areas where other methods have not enjoyed such success.

Autism is a condition which demands more research - even if some autistic people do not want their condition to be ‘cured’, most would like some of their symptoms to be alleviated.

Fatemi and colleagues (J Autism Dev Disord. 2009, 39(2) pp. 223–230) subjected brain tissue from autistic and control subjects to SDS-PAGE followed by Western blotting and incubation with antibodies to four GABA-A receptor subunits.

Researchers can manipulate antibodies to yield very impressive research outcomes, which may prove highly relevant to the medical treatment of the future.

Severson et al (MBC 2009, 20(7) pp. 1916-1925) used antibodies, including monoclonal rabbit anti-JAM-A and monoclonal rabbit anti-β1 integrin from Novus Biologicals to investigate epithelial cell migration.

Researchers requiring antibody products can have some difficulty in obtaining precisely what they need. However, recent developments may make this dilemma less of an issue than it has proven in the past.

Antibodies to beclin 1 may help elucidate the significance of this protein and its role in autophagy.

Autophagy is the lysosomal degradation of cell constituents. It occurs in malnutrition, enabling the body to recycle cell components to provide metabolic precursors. Autophagy is also involved in the response to pathogens and in other processes. Some aspects are summarised here.

Treating cancer is a major health priority in western society. Coupled with attempts to alter unhealthy behaviour, it is hoped that better cancer treatment can reduce premature deaths.

Anti-APE1 mouse monoclonal antibodies from Novus Biologicals were antibodies used to investigate drug resistance in non-small cell lung carcinoma (Wang et al., Lung Cancer 2009, 65(3), pp. 298-304). Tumour drug resistance results in less successful chemotherapy.

Anti-AGE antibodies are not the elixir of youth as their name might imply! They have nevertheless provided new information about Alzheimer’s disease, the major cause of dementia in old age.

Extra-bright antibodies increase the specificity and sensitivity of any fluorescence-based procedure. They are stable over a wide pH range and are also highly ‘photo stable.’

Novus Biologicals now offer more than 1,150 antibodies conjugated to DyLight® fluorescent dyes.

As fluorescent imaging technology advances, there is a growing drive to achieve increasingly quantitative measurement of fluorescent signals.

Immunohistochemical testing using antibody panels has a valuable role in cancer diagnosis. Some tumors, especially more malignant ones, tend to lose the appearance of the tissue of origin. However, knowing the tissue of origin assists the physician in selecting the best treatment thus a differential diagnosis is required.