Study Reveals Why Commercial Antibodies Fail

There are several advantages to generating your own antibody for your project. A lack of trust for commercial antibodies is common among researchers, and a new study shows there are good reasons. 

One of the biggest sources of frustration for researchers who buy their antibodies through antibody banks is they have to try several different antibodies before finding one that works. A new study now suggests the problem stems from extensive antibody inflation within the network of antibody vendors.

The study, conducted by Jan Voskuil (CSO of Everest Biotech Ltd), shows that the antibody vendors buy and re-label antibodies from each other, and not from the manufacturers, in order to ramp up the numbers of antibodies on stock. This results in the exact same antibody appearing multi-fold on many catalogues worldwide, often marked with outdated or incorrect QC data. 

The issue goes deeper than this though. As it turns out, even buying the exact product as endorsed by scientific publications does not guarantee that you will get the antibody that was successfully used in the publication. This is due to flawed QA procedures taken on by vendors who re-label antibodies bought from other antibody banks without regarding batch-to-batch variation.

Judging by the extensive increase of antibodies these banks are offering, this problem will not go away any time soon. More likely it will become an even bigger nuisance as the banks expand their catalogues without buying directly from the manufacturers. 

Stay tuned to see how custom antibody production at a manufacturer like Capra Science can give you significant advantages in your research, R&D and immunodiagnostics.