C. elegans Antibodies From the modENCODE Project Available Through Novus Biologicals

Antibodies against 69 C. elegans chromosomal proteins generated by the modENCODE project are now commercially available through Novus Biologicals, SDIX’s pre-made antibody distributor. The modENCODE project (model organism ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements) is funded by the NIH to identify all of the DNA sequence-based functional elements in the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and Drosophila melanogaster genomes.

The modENCODE antibodies available through Novus come from a group headed by Dr. Jason Lieb (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) that is focused on chromosome-associated proteins in C. elegans. The antibodies were developed using SDIX’s proprietary Genomic Antibody Technology™ (GAT™). This technology allows the antibodies to be designed to conform to the native structure of the protein, resulting in a more specific and sensitive antibody that has a higher success rate in various assays and applications. The affinity-purified rabbit polyclonal antibodies have been validated for use in one or more of several of applications, including chromatin immunoprecipitation, Western blot and ELISA.

C. elegans is a free-living nematode about 1 mm in length. It is a key model organism that has been used for decades by thousands of researchers. Research advantages include its small size, short life cycle, optical transparency, and the many genes and pathways that it shares with humans and that are common to all animals. C. elegans antibodies are often difficult to find commercially, therefore the partnership between modENCODE, SDIX and Novus is a significant step forward.

The modENCODE project recently published a paper in Science outlining their work improving the annotation of the C. elegans genome (Gerstein MB, et al. PMID: 21177976). This characterization includes transcriptome profiling across a developmental time course, genome-wide identification of transcription factor-binding sites, and maps of chromatin organization. Additional work on C. elegans, as well as Drosophila, will be continued and can be viewed on the modENCODE Blog.