Antibody News

The protein TLR6 is one member of the large Toll-like receptor (TLR) family, which governs the activation of the innate immunity system and pathogen recognition in cells. The TLR family is highly conserved from Drosophila to humans, and all the family members have a high degree of both functional and structural homology. TLRs modulate cytokine production by cells that is required to effectively establish innate immunity.  Interesting mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation studies in van den Berk’s lab with the TLR6 antibody, demonstrated that the expression patterns of TLRs and ligand-induced signaling and outcome vary between MSCs derived from primitive, unrestricted lineage cord blood compared to those from bone marrow¹.  Harman et al used the TLR6 antibody to perform analogous lineage gene expression profiles in sorted human blood and skin...

Also known as PROM1 and AC133, this gene is located on chromosome 4p15 and encodes CD133, a 120kDa pentaspan transmembrane glycoprotein (5-TM) and presents multiple spliced variants. Prominin-1 (CD133) was the first protein identified as "Prominin"; originated from the Latin word "Prominere" meaning to protrude and was initially detected on CD34 bright hematopoietic stem cells using a monoclonal antibody (mAb) raised against human CD34⁺cells. This antibody detected the AC133 epitope of CD133 and since the expression of this epitope was restricted to CD34⁺ progenitors in bone marrow, adult blood and fetal liver cells, CD133 was proposed as the marker for progenitor hematopoietic cells. [1,2] Subsequently Florek et al, demonstrated the expression of CD133 in several adult human tissues, such as kidney proximal tubules and the parietal layer of Bowman's capsule of...

CD4, also known as Cluster of Differentiation 4, interacts with major histocompatibility complex class II antigens, acts as a receptor for the human immunodeficiency virus and induces the aggregation of lipid rafts. It is expressed in T lymphocytes, B cells, macrophages, granulocytes, dendritic cells and specific regions of the brain. This protein initiates the early phase of T-cell activation and may function as an important mediator of indirect neuronal damage in infectious and immune-mediated diseases of the central nervous system.

CD4 has been associated with CD4 deficiency, penicilliosis, dermatophytosis, anogenital venereal wart, anus cancer and over 100 other diseases and disorders.  Among its related super-pathways are T cell receptor signaling pathway...

RANKL is the ligand for the receptor activator of NFkB (RANK) that belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) superfamily. RANK overexpression induces the NFkB and c-Jun-terminal kinase (JNK) downstream pathways. This pathway has been studied in detail in the bone remodeling system with regards to osteoclast activity and induction. The RANK antibody was used to characterize the expression and localization patterns of RANK in polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) upon inflammation (1).  Additionally, RANKL antibody was employed in bone remodeling studies on a mouse osteoblast model to investigate the role of osteoclast differentiation factor (ODF) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated bone diseases such as periodontitis (2). Those researchers used RANKL antibody to demonstrate that LPS directly induces ODF mRNA via...

NFkB-activating kinase (NAK) is serine/threonine protein kinase that is a member of the IkB kinase (IKK) family and plays a key role in cellular inflammatory responses to foreign stimuli and agents. Fitzgerald, et al. used the NAK antibody to characterize the signaling pathways downstream of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and NFkB in viral infection and the innate immune response – NAK and IkappaB kinase epsilon (IKKepsilon) were found to be integral components (1). Further IRF3 studies were done with the NAK antibody to generate expression profiles in cord blood cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce interferon downstream...

Cyclization recombination enzyme (Cre) is a member of the extensive family of recombinases and recognizes a 34 bp sequence motif from PI bacteriophage referred to as LoxP. The Cre enzyme works to cleanly excise an intervening DNA fragment that is flanked by two LoxP sites. The LoxP sites must be present in the same orientation. The excised segment is later degraded to leave only a single LoxP site copy in the starting target molecule. As Cre was first developed in the late 1980's and heavily used to artificially manipulate gene expression in many systems, there are comprehensive reviews of the Cre/lox system in the literature (1). Additionally, because the Cre/Lox system is very compatible in terms of versatility, it can be applied to a wide variety of cell types, such that there are numerous stable bacterial, plant, and animal stocks containing a Cre gene copy controlled under an assortment of useful promoters - ubiquitous, tissue-specific, inducible...

Dnmt1 belongs to the C5-methyltransferase family that repairs cytosines in dsDNA using a nucleophilic attack mechanism. Dnmt1 is the most abundant mammalian DNA methyltransferase. It is the key methylation maintenance enzyme for both DNA replication/repair and de novo methylation during somatic cell development and differentiation. It primarily acts upon CpG residues, with a preference for hemimethylated residues, but is capable of methylating unmethylated DNA more than other Dnmt enzymes. In cell division, it is essential for epigenetic inheritance because it associates with S-phase DNA replication sites to maintain the methylation pattern in newly synthesized strand. To maintain DNA methylation independently of replication, Dnmt1 routinely cycles through different states of complex formation and localization. It...

Get into the Winter Protein Games 2014! Check out the contenders competing including SKI, POLE, ICEBURG, SKT, TRAIL, WIN and BOB1. Learn more about each protein's function, gene name, molecular weight and family.

View all the fun and games happening in our Winter Protein Games Infographic below.

Novus Biologicals offers reagents for each target:

1. SKI

2. POLE

3. ICEBERG

4. SKT

5. TRAIL

6. WIN

7. BOB1

...

Noxa is a pro-apoptotic gene belonging to the Bcl2 protein family that is unique in that it contains only BH3 domain. The BH3-only subclass of proteins, including proteins like PUMA and Bim in addition to Noxa, regulate the remaining Bcl-2 family members. Due to the key roles these proteins play in this critical pathway, BH3-only proteins have great promise as therapeutic targets for cancers such as leukemias, as well as autoimmune diseases, as discussed in extensive reviews by Zhang, et al. and Cottier, et al. (1,2).

IKK beta, also known as IKK2, activates the NFkB complex by phosphorylating the NFkB inhibitor, IkBa. Several transcript variants, some protein-coding and some not, have been found for IKKB. The Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-kB) family of transcription factors regulates the expression of a wide range of genes critical for immune and inflammatory responses, cell survival, immune development, and cell proliferation (1). NF-kB was firstly identified by Dr. Ranjan Sen in the lab of Nobel Prize laureate David Baltimore as a regulator of kB light chain expression in mature B and plasma cells (2). Years of research following this discovery demonstrated that NF-kB is expressed in almost all cell types and tissues, and specific NF-kB binding sites are present in the promoters/enhancers of a large number of genes.

The NF-kB family contains five structurally related members named p50 and p52 (...

Inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa-B kinase subunit alpha (IKK1 alpha) is a serine/threonine kinase that forms a complex with IKK beta and NEMO. It plays an essential role in embryonic skin development. Mice with low levels of IKKa show an increase in squamous cell carcinoma and overexpression of IKK-α in the skin of these mice abrogates tumor formation (1).

IKK-alpha has also been shown to play a role in B-cell maturation and survival.  BAFF is a soluble signal molecule that is required for B-cell survival and signals through an IKK-α regulated NFkB pathway.  Deletion of IKK-a during B-cell development inhibits B-cell maturation and BAFF-dependent survival but deletion IKK-α in mature B-cells shows no effect.  This study indicates that IKK-α plays an important role in B-cell development and survival (2).