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. 2017 Jun 8:6:851.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.11774.1. eCollection 2017.

The ABCs of finding a good antibody: How to find a good antibody, validate it, and publish meaningful data

Poulomi Acharya  1 , Anna Quinlan  1 , Veronique Neumeister  2
Affiliations

The ABCs of finding a good antibody: How to find a good antibody, validate it, and publish meaningful data

Poulomi Acharya et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

Finding an antibody that works for a specific application can be a difficult task. Hundreds of vendors offer millions of antibodies, but the quality of these products and available validation information varies greatly. In addition, several studies have called into question the reliability of published data as the primary metric for assessing antibody quality. We briefly discuss the antibody quality problem and provide best practice guidelines for selecting and validating an antibody, as well as for publishing data generated using antibodies.

Keywords: antibody quality; antibody validation; immunohistochemistry; primary antibodies; reproducibility crisis; western blotting antibodies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

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Grants and funding

The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work.