Monoclonal Antibody Alternative:
Given the advantages that polyclonal antibodies provide in comparison to monoclonal antibodies, wouldn’t it be great if they could approach the specificity that monoclonal antibodies provide?
Fortunately, our Monospecific antibody production program offers the best of both worlds by combining the strengths of polyclonal antibodies with the typical specificity advantages of a monoclonal antibody.
To achieve this, we begin by analyzing the protein sequence and selecting a peptide sequence of 10-20 amino acids that corresponds to a region of the protein with a high probability of being exposed.
This peptide is then immunized and polyclonal antibodies are produced against the peptide sequence. Serum is collected, which contains antibodies against the peptide sequence along with general antibody complement in the serum against non-specific antigens.
This serum is then affinity purified against the peptide sequence to isolate only those antibodies in the serum that bind to epitopes contained within the peptide sequence.
These affinity-purified antibodies now represent a very small subset of polyclonal antibodies against epitopes corresponding to a highly specific region of the native protein. Given the increased epitope variability, the superior antibody affinity binding characteristics of polyclonal antibodies are maintained while specificity is also significantly higher than with a standard polyclonal antibody and approaches the specificity possible with a single epitope specific monoclonal antibody.
Antibodies generated using this approach represent our most popular service – additional details can be found on our Monospecific Antibody Production page.
Next: Antigens