● Why Antibodies Need Validations?

Poor reproducibility of experimental results is a pervasive problem in scientific research (Goodman 2018). A survey report published in the journal 'Nature' in 2016 showed that more than 70% of researchers were unable to repeat the experiment results of other scientists, and many researchers even encountered difficulties in repeating their own results. Unreproducible experimental results hinder scientific research (Baker 2016).

In some immunology or cell biology experiments, such as protein interaction and identification of cell types, unrepeatability of many experiments is usually attributed to the lack of validation of the antibodies used in research. Antibodies with low performance or affinity toward target antigens can’t satisfy the detection requirements, not to mention the other Issues, for examples antibody cross-reaction, batch-to-batch variance, which can lead to variable experimental results (Baker 2015). Therefore, reasonable validations of antibodies are necessary for ensuring their performance.

● Princples and Strategies of Zen-Bioscience's Antibody Validations

'Antibody validation is the experimental evidence and data reporting that a particular antibody is suitable for an intended application' (Weller 2018). Well-characterized antibodies with good consistency and the ability to generate reliable experimental data are critical to solving the 'experimental reproducibility crisis'. In view of this phenomenon, the academic community has actively taken many measures to improve the quality of antibody validation, including the establishment of the International Working Group on Antibody Validation (IWGAV) and the release of five standard recommendations for antibody validation (Uhlen et al., 2016), namely genetic strategy, positive Interaction strategy, independent antibody strategy, tagged protein expression and immunocapture and mass spectrometry analysis.

 To ensure that antibodies of Zen-Bioscience work effectively in your experiments, we continuously determine the functionality and specificity of them in immunodetections through five verification standards and also the KO (Knock out) verification strategy. With more than 15 years’ experience in antibody production, we have customized an appropriate combination of verification strategies for each antibody, including:

√ Target Gene Knockout (KO) Validation Strategy

√ Independent Antibody Validation Strategy

√ Agonist/Inhibitor Validation Strategy 

√ Multiple Cell Lines Validation Strategy

√ Different Batches of Multiple Antibodies Comparison Verification Strategy

√ Tag Protein Expression Strategy

√ Modification Verification Strategy

√ Recombinant Strategy