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Recombinant Antibodies |
What are recombinant antibodies?
Recombinant antibodies are laboratory-produced antibodies generated from a precisely defined DNA sequence, helping ensure consistent bioactivity, specificity, and performance across production lots. Unlike traditional monoclonal antibodies derived from hybridoma cells, recombinant antibodies are made in vitro, minimizing issues such as cell-line drift, variability between lots, and inconsistent specificity in complex biological samples.
Recombinant antibodies can be genetically manipulated to offer higher quality and better performing reagents. They are known for their versatility by being suitable for a wide range of applications and being utilized in large-scale or long-term experiments. Recombinant antibodies are available in diverse formats such as conjugated and purified forms with multiple species backbones, isotypes, and sub-types.
Why choose recombinant antibodies?
We are addressing the challenges faced by researchers in proteomics, human health, and drug discovery by offering highly validated recombinant antibodies.
- Specificity: Our antibodies undergo rigorous advanced verification through one or more different methods like relative expression, knockout analysis, and cell treatment. Currently, the portfolio houses thousands of advanced verified antibodies and we are in continuous pursuit to increase these numbers.
- Exceptional performance and sensitivity: Recombinant antibodies are available in different engineered backbones, resulting in enhanced sensitivity and supporting wider application coverage, without compromising on specificity.
- Versatility and scalability: We offer antibodies raised in multiple species, validated using a rigorous process to suit various research needs and a wide range of applications. Recombinant production methods allow for large scale lot manufacturing.
- Reproducibility: Recombinant monoclonal antibodies exhibit exceptional lot-to-lot reproducibility because banked DNA does not exhibit a genetic drift—a phenomenon where hybridomas change expression patterns over time.
Recombinant antibody selection guide
| Recombinant Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies | Recombinant Rabbit Polyclonal Antibodies | Superclonal Recombinant Antibodies | VHH Antibodies | Conventional Monoclonal Antibody | Conventional Polyclonal Antibody | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Primary antibody | Primary antibody | Secondary antibody | Primary and secondary antibody | Primary antibody | Primary antibody |
| Description | Derived from rabbit monoclonal antibody-producing cell lines. | Derived from a mixture of recombinant rabbit antibodies. | Derived from a pool of recombinant secondary antibodies. | Retain the antigen binding region of the heavy chain domain of a conventional antibody, but do not have the other light variable chain domains. | Derived from fusing host animal spleen cells with myeloma cells to produce genetically homogeneous antibodies against a single epitope. | Derived from the inoculation of a suitable mammal, such as a mouse, rabbit, or goat. |
| Advantages | These recombinant cloned antibodies are not susceptible to cell-line drift or lot-to-lot variation, allowing for peak specificity and performance. | Like conventional polyclonal antibodies, the recombinant polyclonal offers enhanced sensitivity for low abundance targets, while ensuring consistency in chain populations across lots, eliminating biological variability. | Provide the epitope-precision of monoclonal antibodies while achieving the multi-epitope coverage and sensitivity of polyclonal antibodies. | Roughly 1/10th the size of conventional IgG antibodies, providing better tissue penetration, high labeling density and better image resolution. | Offer specificity to a single epitope and ensure a stable, long-term supply. | Enhanced sensitivity for low abundance targets with multi-epitope coverage. |
| Sensitivity | High | Highest | High | High | Variable, dependent on epitope availability | Variable, dependent on production and validation methods |
| Specificity | High | High | High | Variable, dependent on epitope distribution among various clones, production, and validation methods | Variable, dependent on epitope availability and validation methods | Variable, dependent on epitope distribution among various clones, production, and validation methods |
| Lot-to-lot consistency | Highest | High | High | Variable, animal variability and purification process | Aberrant transcripts can be acquired from myeloma fusions | Variable, animal variability and purification process |
| Epitope variability | None | None | None | None | None, but can be acquired over time | Variable across lots |
| Production | Developed by isolating and cloning the specific antibody heavy and light chain DNA sequences. | Comprised of a mixture of recombinant antibodies co-expressed from a library of heavy and light chains. | Produce and characterize numerous individual recombinant antibodies. Then, carefully screen, select, and pool specific antibodies. | Produced via recombinant techniques in bacterial or alternative animal-free expression systems. | Hybridoma generation via immunization methods and expression via tissue culture or ascites production. | Immunization via a host animal (positive and/or negative selection) of antibodies from the serum. |
Learn more about how recombinant antibodies are produced.
Explore our extensive portfolio of recombinant antibodies.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between recombinant and monoclonal antibodies?
Recombinant antibodies are produced from defined DNA sequences in expression systems, enabling consistent quality and performance. Traditional monoclonal antibodies are generated from hybridoma cell lines, which can introduce variability over time due to cell-line drift.
What is the difference between native and recombinant antibody?
Native antibodies are produced naturally by immune cells in an organism, while recombinant antibodies are engineered in vitro from known gene sequences for precise control of structure, specificity, and reproducibility.
What are the functional applications of recombinant antibodies?
Recombinant antibodies are widely used in diagnostics, therapeutics, and research including immunoassays, flow cytometry, imaging, and target verification where reliability and batch-to-batch consistency are important.
Featured webinar
Highly specific antibodies for Parkinson’s Disease focused on recombinant technologies
Learn about the importance of highly verified and reproducible recombinant antibodies and recent testing of Parkin antibodies and how they relate to the study of Parkinson's Disease.
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Advanced Verification
Thermo Fisher Scientific is committed to adopting higher validation standards for the Invitrogen antibody portfolio. We have implemented additional specificity tests to help ensure high confidence levels in our products. You can identify the products that have already undergone this testing with the Advanced Verification badge, shown above. This badge can be found in antibody search results and at the top of product webpages. The data supporting the Advanced Verification status can be found in the product specific data galleries. To learn more about our testing standards, please visit Invitrogen Antibody Verification.
* The use or any variation of the word “validation” refers only to research use antibodies that were subject to functional testing to confirm that the antibody can be used with the research techniques indicated. It does not ensure that the product(s) was validated for clinical or diagnostic use.
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For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.