The widely adopted monoclonal antibody “SY5” recognises involucrin, a protein expressed by keratinocytes of the epidermis and has been shown to have altered expression in pathological conditions. SY5 was developed by Fiona Watt in 1982 while at Imperial Cancer Research Fund’s (predecessor to Cancer Research UK), Lincoln's Inn Fields laboratory. The antibody has since been validated in an array of applications and been published more than ten times including a recent Cell paper from the lab of Bruno Reversade at A*STAR in Singapore where the antibody was applied by immunofluorescence. The authors used the antibody to target involucrin in experiments testing gain-of-function mutations in the inflammasome sensor NLRP1 that were shown to increase the susceptibility to skin cancer and unmask unique regulatory autoinhibition in the inflammasome.

Increasingly, researchers are acknowledging the value in recombinant antibody expression with many calling for monoclonal antibodies to be absolutely defined by their amino acid sequence. With the similar increase in the adoption of recombinantly produced antibodies by the research tool industry together with the established popularity of SY5, Ximbio have in collaboration with Absolute Antibody generated a recombinantly produced SY5 antibody. The antibody is currently being evaluated for equivalence in performance to the original mouse monoclonal version. If your group has an interest in testing the recombiantly produced SY5 antibody please contact enquiries@ximbio.com