Antibodies

Biography

Biography: Jan Voskuil

Abstract

Antibodies play a pivotal role in diagnostics, biomarkers research and increasingly in therapeutics. However in all three fields problems related to specificity and to consistency of the antibodies occur. Such problems are being kept to a minimum by the use of monoclonal antibodies, because of their immortality and for their single molecular basis. However, existing monoclonal antibodies have generally not been screened for the specific application it is currently required for. This leads to the use of antibodies with insufficient affinity for that particular application. In addition different formulations at which one antibody is offered to the market will cause inconsistencies in performance. Any polyclonal antibody is dismissed because it represents a mixture of different molecules, and therefore this mixture will change in composition from animal to animal thus changing the characteristics of the reagent from batch to batch. Although for therapeutics the best way to address these problems may be through the route of recombinant reagents (avoiding the animals altogether), one remains to be vigilant for cross-reactivity of reagents when reacting to a non-unique epitope. Here is a good opportunity to make the most of a cost-effective alternative for in vitro and for ex vivo tests; there is evidence that epitope-specific polyclonal antibodies offer an adequate alternative to unavailable fit-for-purpose monoclonal antibody.