title: The European antibody network's practical guide to finding and validating suitable antibodies for research.
abstract: Antibodies are widely exploited as research/diagnostic tools and therapeutics. Despite providing exciting research opportunities, the multitude of available antibodies also offers a bewildering array of choice. Importantly, not all companies comply with the highest standards, and thus many reagents fail basic validation tests. The responsibility for antibodies being fit for purpose rests, surprisingly, with their user. This paper condenses the extensive experience of the European Monoclonal Antibody Network to help researchers identify antibodies specific for their target antigen. A stepwise strategy is provided for prioritising antibodies and making informed decisions regarding further essential validation requirements. Web-based antibody validation guides provide practical approaches for testing antibody activity and specificity. We aim to enable researchers with little or no prior experience of antibody characterization to understand how to determine the suitability of their antibody for its intended purpose, enabling both time and cost effective generation of high quality antibody-based data fit for publication.
authors.affiliation: a Monoclonal Antibody Unit; Spanish National Cancer Research Center ; Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roncador
authors.affiliation: b Immunology Unit, Department of Cell Biology; Immunology and Neurosciences ; Medical School, University of Barcelona ; Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.affiliation: a Monoclonal Antibody Unit; Spanish National Cancer Research Center ; Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maestre
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Amanda P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: d OxFabs; University of Oxford ; Oxford UK.
authors.forename: Jacqueline L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cordell
authors.affiliation: e Antibody and Vaccine Group; Cancer Sciences Unit; University of Southampton; Faculty of Medicine; General Hospital , Southampton , UK.
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cragg
authors.affiliation: f Center for the Production of Diagnostic Reagents and for Research; Blood Transfusion Center of Slovenia ; Ljubljana , Slovenia.
authors.forename: Vladka Č
authors.initials: VČ
authors.lastname: Šerbec
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: g Center for Proteomics; Faculty of Medicine; University of Rijeka ; Rijeka , Croatia.
authors.forename: Vanda J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Lisnic
authors.affiliation: h Department of Immunology and Oncology ; Spanish National Center for Biotechnology; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB/CSIC) ; Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kremer
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Demin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: i Institute of Immunology; University Medical Center ; Hamburg , 20246 Germany.
authors.forename: Friedrich
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Koch-Nolte
authors.affiliation: j Custom Antibody Service (CAbS); IQAC-CSIC/CIBER-BBN ; Barcelona , Spain.
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pascual
authors.affiliation: k Section of Immunobiology; Institute of Biomedicine; University of Leon ; Léon , Spain.
authors.forename: Jose-Ignacio
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Barbosa
authors.affiliation: l Department of Tumorimmunology ; Radboud University Medical Center ; Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruurd
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torensma
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Turley
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pulford
authors.affiliation: c NDCLS, Radcliffe Department of Medicine ; University of Oxford ; Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Alison H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Banham
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000737:chemistry*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal
keywords: BLAST searches; CiteAb; EuroMAbNet; HLDA workshops; flow cytometry; gene silencing; immunohistochemistry; monoclonal antibodies; validation studies; western blotting