To enhance flexibility, we've formulated over 10,000 of our antibodies to be carrier-free and conjugation-ready. This includes antibodies designed for use in imaging, flow cytometry, and other applications. It also includes paired capture and detector ELISA antibodies for use in sandwich ELISA antibody pairs.

Carrier-free antibodies are specifically designed for antibody labeling, saving time with a simplified protocol. The antibody is added directly to the conjugation reaction, avoiding antibody loss without the need to perform buffer exchange or concentration.

By combining a carrier-free antibody with our Lightning-Link® antibody conjugation kits, it is possible to produce a conjugated antibody in under 4 hours with just 30 seconds of hands-on time and 100% antibody recovery.

Advantages of our carrier-free antibodies

• BSA, sodium azide, and glycerol-free for consistent conjugation
• Compatible with a variety of different labels such as fluorochromes, metal isotypes, oligonucleotides, and enzymes
• Recombinantly manufactured for the highest consistency between batches
• 1 mg/mL concentration, eliminating the need to concentrate prior to conjugation
• Clone-validated in relevant applications such as IHC and flow cytometry
• Purified IgG to increase conjugation yield

 Why use a carrier-free antibody for conjugation?

Standard antibodies are typically stored in a phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution with carrier proteins like bovine serum albumin (BSA) and other additives such as glycerol and sodium azide.

These proteins and additives can stabilize antibodies stored at lower concentrations and give more flexibility in storage temperatures. However, they can hinder effective conjugation to fluorochromes, metals, oligonucleotides, and enzymes, so removing these proteins and additives enhances labeling.

• BSA competes with the primary antibody for the label of interest, which greatly reduces the conjugation efficiency
• Sodium azide in the antibody solution can be toxic to cells, limiting the antibody's use in cell culture
• Sodium azide can also interfere with antibody conjugation and inhibits the activity of horseradish peroxidase (HRP)

Carrier-free ELISA antibodies for sandwich ELISA antibody pairs

Abcam has developed over 4,000 sandwich ELISA antibody pairs, which have been highly validated and are used in our SimpleStep ELISA^® kits. Each pair is based on recombinant monoclonal antibodies for the highest level of batch-to-batch consistency.

We have made the individual capture and detector antibodies from these antibody pairs available in a carrier-free format, giving you the flexibility you need to adapt your pair to your immunoassay of choice.

Many of our ELISA antibodies have been used to develop assays for platforms including  Mesoscale, Quanterix Simoa^®, and AlphaELISA™

Carrier-free antibodies in multiplex assays

Our carrier-free formats are ideal for building multiplex assays with your own panel of conjugated antibodies.

Conjugating antibodies for flow based-assays

Cytometry by Time Of Flight (CyTOF^®) is a flow cytometry platform that uses metal-conjugated antibodies to characterize and quantify more than 40 parameters simultaneously at the single-cell level.

Conjugating antibodies for multiplex IHC assays

Imaging mass cytometry™ (IMC) combines the advantages of metal-conjugated antibodies and immunohistochemical/immunocytochemical methods to study cell-cell interactions at the subcellular resolution and delineate tumor heterogeneity.

​Cyclic immunofluorescence (CyCIF) involves repeatedly staining and imaging slides, making it a reliable and inexpensive method for multiplex imaging.

Imaging Mass Cytometry™, IMC™, CyTOF® are trademarks of Fluidigm Canada Inc. ​
Simoa® is a trademark of Quanterix Inc.
AlphaELISA™ is a trademark of Revvity Inc.