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Advantages & Drawbacks of Proteins
Proteins are widely used to develop polyclonal antibodies due to their high number of distinct epitopes, leading to a very high immunogenicity. These immunogens are also a good choice to develop antibodies which are expected to work in a wide range of applications.
However, the presence of conserved patterns within some protein families might be a concern in terms of cross-reactivity, and the presence of tags within recombinant proteins may lead to the production of anti-tag antibodies. Moreover, some proteins may be difficult to purify or require specific purification processes, thus increasing production costs.
Protein Supply
To be used as immunogens, proteins may be of various nature:
- soluble protein, under various forms: in solution, lyophilised, within polyacrylamide gel slice
- microorganisms: inactivated virus, bacteria or yeast
- others: cell or tissue extracts, others (please contact us)
Proteins in solution or lyophilised should be sent with wet or dry ice packs. We recommend limiting aggressive buffer conditions such as acetic acid, urea (< 6M) and guanidine hydrochloride. When supplying the protein within polyacrylamide gel slices the standard Coomassie staining procedure can be used. The bands should be washed and then placed wet into Eppendorf tubes, which can be shipped at room temperature.
To provide us with your protein, please fill in our antigen supply form and add it to your shipment.
Download the antigen supply form (PDF, 4.9 Mb)
Protein Quantity
The quantity of immunogenic protein required for the immunisation protocol has been optimised for each species. Depending on your specific constraints, the corresponding quantities may be adapted. However in this case, please note that we disclaim any responsibility of unsuccessful immunisation or toxic effects on the animals (overdose of immunogen may cause lethal injuries).
Additional services included in our « All inclusive » service for a polyclonal antibody development project require an additional quantity of protein in order to perform ELISA monitoring and, when required, antigen affinity purification.
Monoclonal antibody development projects also require higher quantities of pure protein (when compared to polyclonal antibody development projects) to perform all the steps of the development protocol (immunisation, development of the detection method, immunoreactivity monitoring, screening of hybridomas as well as antibody production assays).
Please contact us to have an estimation of the quantity of immunogen we require to perform your project.