Here is Why Monoclonal Antibodies Are Highly Used in Medical Research

Although each antibody has its strengths and weaknesses, today, we are going to emphasize the advantages of monoclonal antibodies in medical research.

Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies derived from a single clone that recognizes a sole antigenic determinant or epitope within an antigen. The production of monoclonal antibodies is traditionally carried out using hybridoma technology, a procedure that is divided into three main steps:

• Immunization

Animals are immunized according to a pre-established schedule by injections with the specific antigen.

• Fusion

It consists of B lymphocytes' isolation from the spleen of immunized animals and their fusion with myeloma cells, giving rise to a new cell type known as a hybridoma. Hybridomas could be described as immortalized B lymphocytes. They combine the ability of B lymphocytes to secrete a specific antibody together with the ability of myeloma cells to divide indefinitely.

• Cloning

Once the hybridoma of interest has been selected, it is subcloned using serial dilutions to ensure that the final hybridoma is composed of a single type of B lymphocytes. Therefore, the antibodies generated from them are monoclonal.

Medical researchers and clinics depend on the quality supply of antibodies by laboratories. Among the leading names worldwide, Boster Bio holds a strong reputation of manufacturing antibodies which are highly specialized, highly specific, primary and secondary, and WB/IHC compatible.

Boster Bio’s technical advancement in this sector has allowed researchers to efficiently determine their findings. As a matter of fact, antibodies supplied by Boster Bio have been a part of more than 29,000 plus citations.

Antibodies manufactured by Boster Bio are certified for IHC, WB, ELISA and Flow Cytometry.

Among the frequently asked questions about antibodies, it is common to find doubts about the advantages of monoclonal antibodies over polyclonal ones. Here we tell you.

Reasons why monoclonal antibodies are utilized in research

• Homogeneity

As they come from a single B-cell clone, monoclonal antibodies are identical to each other, making them homogeneous reagents that provide consistency to the assays.

• Specificity

As we have already mentioned, monoclonal antibodies recognize a single epitope of a given antigen, so they are highly specific for the target of interest. Due to this high specificity, monoclonal antibodies minimize the probability of cross-reactions, thus reducing background noise and false-positive results.

• Quantity

Once the hybridomas have been obtained, they are an inexhaustible source of monoclonal antibodies that allows them to be collected on a large scale, in an unlimited way, and at a reasonable cost, through their in vitro culture.

• Reproducibility

When produced from a single B cell clone, the quality of the antibodies produced in different batches will always be the same, since the monoclonal antibodies from all batches will be identical.

The reproducibility of monoclonal antibodies is an especially important characteristic when it comes to standardizing experimental procedures and obtaining consistent results.

• Scalability

Because production is from a stabilized, immortal cell line, the monoclonal antibody production process is highly scalable to industrial levels.