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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Single-cell Screening Method for the Selection and Recovery of Antibodies with Desired Specificities from Enriched Human Memory B Cell Populations
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Published on: August 22, 2019

Antibody validation

Jennifer Bordeaux1, Allison Welsh, Seema Agarwal

  • 1Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.

Biotechniques
|April 3, 2010
PubMed

Antibodies are among the most frequently used tools in basic science research and in clinical assays, but there are no universally accepted guidelines or standardized methods for determining the validity of these reagents. Furthermore, for commercially available antibodies, it is clear that what is on the label does not necessarily correspond to what is in the tube. To validate an antibody, it must be shown to be specific, selective, and reproducible in the context for which it is to be used. In this review, we highlight the common pitfalls when working with antibodies, common practices for validating antibodies, and levels of commercial antibody validation for seven vendors. Finally, we share our algorithm for antibody validation for immunohistochemistry and quantitative immunofluorescence.

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