How Are Your Antibodies Validated?*

In September 2015, Thermo Fisher Scientific helped organize and supported a group of leading researchers from institutions throughout the world to draft a set of proposed standards for the best ways to validate* antibody specificity. The International Working Group for Antibody Validation (IWGAV) published their proposed strategies in Nature Methods in September 2016.

In the fall of 2016, many of the IWGAV members, as well as representatives from antibody producers, pharmaceutical companies, and leading academic research labs, met at an event coordinated by the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) to further study this topic. This meeting reviewed and validated the IWGAV’s proposed standards and discussed ways to implement the standards across the industry.

As a result of our active discussions and key participation in these forums, we have seen a clear consensus develop around several impactful practices to help further advance antibody validation*. These new guidelines will add to the extensive application validation* already performed for Invitrogen antibodies and will focus on confirming antibody specificity. Testing antibodies for application validation* is critical and must be carried out with the utmost rigor, but it can be a further challenge to confirm antibody specificity. By combining both application validation* and specificity testing, we aim to ensure that antibodies meet the highest possible standards of overall antibody validation.*

These specificity verification methods are being used to systematically validate* the Invitrogen antibody portfolio.

To find out more, go to thermofisher.com/antibodyvalidation

* 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 uses.