As part of Ximbio’s mission to source and share excellent quality research tools around the globe we attended the International Antibody Validation Meeting on September 15th and 16th at Bath University. Although only in its second year, the meeting was very well supported with international leaders in antibody production from academia, biotech and the pharmaceutical industry.
Antibodies, extensively used in biological research, can be frustratingly notorious for not functioning as expected and estimates suggest that hundreds of millions of research funding are wasted each year globally as a result. One of the significant contributing factors to this problem is the lack of an international production or validation standard in this area, something in vast contrast to the heavily legislated drug development industry.
Presentations detailed the efforts large companies like Abcam, AstraZeneca, Biotechne, Proteintech and ThermoFisher are pursuing to ensure the products they use and distribute function as intended. Existing initiatives like CiteAb, the largest citation-ranked antibody search engine, or F1000 who’ve developed a research publication antibody validation channel, contribute significantly to empower researchers. At Ximbio.com our review section enables product users to transparently evaluate the products in our catalogue, ensuring we share excellent quality research tools.
The field’s current hot topic, recombinant antibodies, attracted intense commercial interest. This new technology, something Ximbio is actively developing in our ever growing portfolio of research tools, uses hybridoma-derived sequence data to engineer and improve existing monoclonal antibodies.
The thought provoking panel discussion was a fantastic spotlight for the necessary changes desperately needed in the field. The meeting’s impact is clear - a minimum standard for antibody validation and quality is essential, and the future is bright, many of the elements discussed will be cemented at the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) meeting next week in California, where it is expected a minimum standard for antibodies will be formalised.
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