Recombinant antibodies
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Progress faster with recombinant antibodies
Updated June 2, 2023
We manufacture recombinant antibodies by cloning antibody genes into high-yield expression vectors and introducing these vectors into hosts.
Recombinant antibodies can succeed where other manufacturing methods often fall short. This method isn’t limited by low reproducibility and genetic drift, leading to variations in the final antibody, and more difficult targets such as toxins, nucleotides, and membrane-bound proteins become possible.
Our recombinant antibodies deliver many advantages, including batch-to-batch consistency, confirmed specificity, and ease of scalability, so that you can progress your research faster.
Learn more about recombinant multiclonal antibodies.
The advantages of recombinantly manufactured antibodies
Our recombinantly manufactured antibodies can help you achieve:
- Unrivaled batch-to-batch consistency
- Improved sensitivity and confirmed specificity due to industry-leading validation
- Ease of scalability and long-term supply
- High-throughput in vitro manufacture
Unrivaled batch-to-batch consistency
Recombinant antibody production is controlled and made reliable using a unique set of genes. This leads to antibodies with high batch-to-batch consistency, meaning you can achieve the highly reproducible results and move your project forward faster.
Figure 1. Batch-to-batch reproducibility in the localization of PD-L1 in FFPE human placenta across five batches of our anti-PD-L1 [28-8] recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibody (ab205921). IHC was performed manually using a Biocare Decloaking Device and Universal HIER antigen retrieval reagent (ab208572). The primary antibody was incubated overnight at 4°C, followed by goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody and HRP-linked anti-goat polymer antibody (ab209101). DAB was used as a chromogen with a Hematoxylin counterstain.
Find out more about the reproducibility of our recombinant anti-PD-L1 antibody.
KD value is a quantitative measure of antibody affinity. The lower the KD value, the higher the affinity of the antibody. Analysis of KD values of our recombinant anti-PDL1 antibody shows that its affinity remains high across five different batches (Table 1).
Table 1. Analysis of KD values for five different batches of our recombinant anti-PD-L1 antibody [28-8] (ab205921). To learn more about KD value, check out our KD guide.
Antibody | KD (M) |
PD-L1_batch 1 | 4.74E-11 |
PD-L1_batch 2 | 3.83E-11 |
PD-L1_batch 3 | 2.04E-11 |
PD-L1_batch 4 | 2.40E-11 |
PD-L1_batch 5 | 2.13E-11 |
Improved sensitivity and confirmed specificity due to industry-leading validation
To ensure specificity, our recombinant antibodies undergo industry-leading validation. This includes over 3,800 with knock-out validation, so you can move your research forward faster.
And because the selection process for the desired clone occurs at both the hybridoma and recombinant cloning stages, we can select antibodies with the most favorable qualities for you.
Our recombinant antibodies have a remarkably high affinity, with KD values in the picomolar (10-10–10-12) range. High-affinity antibodies allow greater sensitivity in assays as they bind strongly to the antigen and maintain this bond better under difficult conditions compared to low-affinity antibodies.
The following example demonstrates the differences in specificity between recombinant antibodies and other antibody types:
Figure 2. Our recombinant anti-GRIM19 [EPR4471(2)] antibody (left) being tested on knock-out and wild-type samples against our monoclonal anti-GRIM19 [6E1BH7] antibody.
Ease of scalability and continuity of supply
Recombinant manufacture relies on cloning antibody genes into expression vectors, so antibody expression can be carried out at any scale, with our guaranteed supply giving you continuity and peace of mind for projects of all sizes. This makes recombinant antibodies a great solution for long-term studies or using the same antibody across multiple samples.
High-throughput in vitro manufacture
Once the antibody-producing genes are isolated, high-throughput in vitro manufacture can be implemented. For antibodies generated using our phage display technology, even the gene of the antibody can be isolated with an animal-free procedure.
What are recombinant monoclonal antibodies?
Recombinant antibodies can be produced as monoclonal or multiclonal. A recombinant monoclonal antibody consists of identical antibody chains that target the same epitope. Multiple epitope targeting allows for greater sensitivity and ability to detect at lower concentrations or low abundance targets. The identical chains increase reproducibility as well as provide a guaranteed supply and confirmed specificity.
What are recombinant multiclonal antibodies?
Recombinant multiclonal antibodies are a defined mixture of carefully selected individual recombinant monoclonal antibodies designed to recognize different epitopes on the same antigen. They are an ideal solution for applications where a polyclonal antibody would traditionally be used and provide the same specificity and reproducibility benefits as recombinant monoclonal antibodies.
The mix of antibodies that make the recombinant multiclonal antibodies is carefully controlled; each recombinant monoclonal antibody in the mix is developed from a defined set of genes that encode the antibodies with the desired characteristics. This ensures batch-to-batch consistency and reproducibility of results.
Our recombinant multiclonal range was awarded the CiteAb Innovation Award 2022.
A robust replacement for polyclonal antibodies
Because recombinant multiclonal antibodies bind to multiple epitopes on the same target protein, they provide excellent sensitivity, making them suitable for when you need a reagent capable of analyzing low-abundance targets or detecting multiple post-translational modifications at once.
When to use recombinant multiclonal antibodies
You can use multiclonals in any situation where a polyclonal would traditionally be used, but with additional benefits. Including:
- Post translational modifications (PTMs): while combining a number of these modifications can be difficult with just one monoclonal, multis can help you achieve multiple PTMs on targets.
- Low abundance proteins/targets: multiclonal epitope targeting allows greater sensitivity at lower concentrations.
- Pan targets: each monoclonal in the mix can target a different form of the pan target. In the broad range of cytokeratins where a monoclonal would only be able to detect one or two targets, we can now produce recombinant multiclonals against the whole family.
- Covers multiple species: where the target protein has low homology between the same protein of different species, we can mix monoclonals to different species to allow for detection across a range of species.
- Broader epitope coverage.
Figures 3 and 4 below compare the sensitivity of a polyclonal and recombinant multiclonal antibody for targets CD133, histone H3 (citrulline R2 + R8 + R17), and GFAP.
Figure 3. Our recombinant anti-Histone H3 (citrulline R2 + R8 + R17) multiclonal antibody [RM1001], ab281584 (left), tested in multiple sample types in western blot against our polyclonal anti-Histone H3 (citrulline R2 + R8 + R17) antibody, ab5103.
Figure 4. Immunofluorescent analysis of mouse primary neural/glia cells labeling GFAP with our recombinant anti-GFAP multiclonal antibody, ab278054 (left), against our polyclonal anti-GFAP antibody, ab7260.
What do our customers think?
“This antibody gave strong, positive signal on the first try and has continued to work reproducibly for several months.” – Gabriel Galea, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health, using ab179484.
“Abcam’s anti-Synaptophysin antibody worked the first time. We were able to generate great images with a very low background using a confocal laser scan.” – Alexandre Magno, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), using ab32127.
Watch our video to see more.
How our recombinants can benefit your research
To find out more about what makes recombinantly manufactured antibodies different and how they can benefit your research, watch the short video below:
Filter our recombinant antibody catalog by research area
Find recombinant antibodies to key targets for your research area with our search filters:
1. Click here to view all recombinant antibodies
2. Scroll down until you see the 'Research areas' filter on the left-hand side
3. Choose your research area of interest from the list to find highly validated recombinant antibodies to your key targets
Filter our recombinant antibody catalog by research area
Find recombinant antibodies to key targets for your research area with our search filters:
1. Click here to view all recombinant antibodies
2. Scroll down until you see the 'Research areas' filter on the left-hand side
3. Choose your research area of interest from the list to find highly validated recombinant antibodies to your key targets