Adjuvant
Chemical or compound added to immunogen to help stimulate an immune response for antibody production.
Affinity
A measure of the binding strength between an antibody and an antigen.
Antigen
A foreign substance in the body that induces the immune system to generate antibodies against it.
Antiserum
Blood serum from an immunized host that contains antibodies as well as other immunoglobulins and proteins.
Applications
Research techniques that a product has been tested to work in.
Ascites
Fluid resulting from growing hybridoma cells in the peritoneal cavity of an animal that contains a high concentration of antibodies.
Avidity
A measure of the total binding strength between antibody and antigen, taking into account all interactions.
Capture antibody
An antibody coated on to an ELISA plate that will bind an antigen within a sample.
Carrier protein
A large, immunogenic protein that is conjugated to a small protein that is incapable of initiating a strong immune response, called a hapten. Examples include BSA and KLH.
Chromogen
A chemical substrate that is catalyzed by an enzyme to produce color. Mostly used in IHC and ELISA.
Clonality
A term describing whether an antibody is monoclonal or polyclonal, based on whether the antibodies derive from a single plasma B cell or multiple.
Clone ID
A clone ID is given to an antibody produced by a single clone of hybridoma cells. Since antibodies are produced by more than one host or hybridoma line, each cloned cell line receives a unique clone number which identifies the monoclonal antibody it produces.
Conjugate
The fluorophore or reporter enzyme that the antibody is linked to. Unconjugated antibodies are not attached to a fluorophore or reporter enzyme and require further reagents, such as a secondary antibody, in order to visualize the antigen.
Cross-reactivity
Binding of an antibody to a protein that contains similar epitopes to its target antigen.
Detection antibody
An antibody used in an ELISA that will bind an immobilized antigen for visualization. The antibody can be directly conjugated to an enzyme for visualization, or it can require a secondary antibody.
Direct staining
When a primary antibody is directly conjugated to a visualization system such as a fluorophore or enzyme. No secondary antibody is required.
Epitope
The antibody binding site on an antigen.
Fluorophore
A substance that emits fluorescence when it is excited by a specific range of wavelengths of light. Can be conjugated to antibodies.
Formulation
The composition of the solution that the antibody is supplied in.
Hapten
A small molecule that cannot elicit an immune response by itself and needs to be bound to a larger carrier protein.
Hybridoma
A cell line created by fusing antibody-producing B-cells with immortalized tumor cells (myeloma). Hybridoma cells will secrete only one type of antibody, based on the B-cell that was used to create them, and are the main method of producing monoclonal antibodies.
Host
The species of animal that the antibody was raised in.
Immunogen
The specific antigen that was used to elicit the immune response in the host to generate the antibody.
Immunoglobulin (Ig)
General term for antibodies.
Indirect staining
An antigen is visualized by primary antibody binding, followed by a secondary antibody binding to the primary antibody. The secondary antibody is conjugated to a fluorophore or enzyme.
Isotype
The structure of the antibody. Antibodies raised in mammals can have five different isotypes: IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD, and IgE. The isotype is based on the number of Y units and the type of heavy chain.
Knockout (KO) validated
The antibody has been validated in a knockout cell line in order to confirm that it is specific for the intended antigen only.
Monoclonal antibody
A population of antibodies produced from a clonal population of B-cells or B-cell-derived hybridomas, meaning that all antibodies are identical and will bind to the same epitope on an antigen.
Multiclonal antibody
A population of antibodies created by mixing together several known monoclonal antibodies.
Paratope
The antigen binding site on the antibody.
Polyclonal antibody
A population of antibodies purified from the serum of a host animal after immunization with an antigen. The antibodies will be derived from multiple B-cells and will therefore recognize multiple epitopes on the antigen.
Pre-adsorption
A method to reduce cross-reactivity of antibodies by first letting them bind to similar targets from other species.
Primary antibody
The antibody used in research applications that binds directly to the antigen of interest. Can be conjugated or unconjugated.
Product form
The antibody is either supplied as a liquid solution or lyophilized stock concentrates.
Purity
The antibody may be supplied in a range of different purities; from crude antiserum and tissue culture supernatant to antigen-purified solutions.
Recombinant antibody
An antibody produced using in vitro expression of synthetic DNA sequences.
Reactivity
The species in which the antibody has been shown to detect the antigen.
Recommended dilutions
The dilutions recommended, as a starting point, for using a product in specific research applications. It may be necessary to adjust the dilution based on experimental results.
Secondary antibody
A conjugated antibody that has been raised to detect antibodies from a particular species. Binds to the primary antibody to visualize antigen binding.
Sequence
The amino acid sequence of the immunogen used to raise the antibody.
Specificity
The ability of an antibody to recognize only the protein that it was raised against.
Target
The antigen that the antibody detects.
Titration
An experiment to find the optimal concentration to use an antibody at in a given application.