Abcam Raises Antibody Validation Standards to Improve Quality for Life Science Researchers

Abcam plc, a global leader in the supply of life science research tools, has announced an industry-changing antibody validation initiative to address the critical need for antibodies with a higher target specificity.

A recent article by Nature identified that around 50% of budgets for protein-binding reagents are wasted globally due to non-specific and inconsistent antibodies. To advance the identification of precision antibodies, Abcam is raising the standard in the industry by providing knockout-validated antibodies on an unprecedented scale. The Company’s commitment to improving validation standards means that a higher price will not be charged for these products. The initiative also enables researchers, who previously would have undertaken their own knockout validation, to benefit from significant time and cost efficiencies. Many of the antibodies that will receive this validation will be recombinant monoclonal antibodies, addressing both specificity and consistency demands of life science research.

Knockout validation involves using knockout cell lines which do not express the target protein of interest; therefore providing a true negative control. Abcam has exclusive rights to precision knockout validation technology from Horizon Discovery Group plc to ensure that antibodies are highly specific to the intended protein target, providing researchers with trusted data that enables them to confidently select the right product and ensure the accuracy of their results.

Alan Hirzel, CEO, Abcam, said: “We always strive to provide the highest quality product and relevant supporting data. Our decision to validate antibodies with these exclusive knockout cell lines means we can give researchers an enhanced level of confidence that they are using the highest specificity products. Our hope is these changes will put more money back into advancing the research missions of our life science customers.”

“We’re starting to use knockout based validation today with widely-used antibodies, and our ambition is for this to apply across our whole catalogue. By using the latest knockout validated technology, validation on this scale is now an achievable goal.”