Rabbit antibody production

Rabbit is an excellent choice of host. Traditionally used, cost effective and with an abundance of secondary antibodies rabbit-antibodies are suitable for most projects. What is more, for anti-peptide antibody projects, where we have designed and produced the peptide, we will guarantee that the resulting antiserum will contain antibodies that target the peptide.

Of course, you can fully customise your project, but for your convenience we have outlined a typical project.

Immunogen/antigen

An immunogen is required for the antibody production. This can be a protein or other molecule that you provide, or it can be produced here. In the latter case, either the entire protein can be obtained using a recombinant technique, or a peptide is designed and synthesized. Using peptides as antigens is the most frequently used strategy. It should be noted that the more effort that is put into this step, the better the odds for the successful outcome of your project. Other labs may choose to ignore this fact, but the production of high quality peptides for antibody production may very well be pivotal for the success of your project.

If you will be supplying the immunogen, there are a few things to keep in mind;

• The immunogen buffer should not be painful or harmful to the animal - please feel free to consult us.
• The immunogen amount should optimally be 500 ug or more per rabbit that is to be immunised.
• The immunogen concentration should be no lower than 0.2 mg/ml.
• Please indicate optimal storage conditions for the sample.
• Please include buffer such that the sample can be diluted if necessary.
• Please notify us of the shipment and provide a tracking number if possible.

Immunisation

One or two rabbits are immunised using our standard protocol. For each rabbit pre-immune serum is collected prior to immunisations, and three bleeds are made over the course of the immunisation schedule. Each 20 ml bleed contains in the order of 100 mg total IgG.

The immunisation protocol is an open-ended schedule, meaning that termination requires your explicit request. Managing your project will ensure that you obtain antibody in the required amounts, while keeping costs down. This means collecting a sufficient volume of antiserum and then terminating the project as soon as possible.

Purification

The crude rabbit antiserum often works very well without any purification. If you wish, we can purify serum and collect either the total IgG, or the fraction of antigen specific antibodies. Typically 20 ml serum is used for such a purification, and the typical yield is 2-5 mg of antigen specific antibody.

Custom production

• Contact us for a free consultation
• Order custom rabbit polyclonal antibody