Scientists poised to unlock their understanding of autophagy with new antibody-based insights
- Improved understanding could influence future diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
- World’s leading methods journal documents use of key antibody, developed as part of Abcam – University of Ottawa collaboration.
25 November 2019, Cambridge, UK – Abcam is excited to announce its involvement in a ground-breaking methodology paper published today in Nature Methods, describing a new technique that promises to significantly advance our understanding of autophagy – cells’ “waste management system.”
As part of a long-standing collaboration between senior author Ryan Charles Russell at the University of Ottawa and Abcam, a highly-sensitive RabMAb™ rabbit monoclonal has been developed with the ability to detect a vital step in the “autophagosome” formation process, the phosphorylation of protein ATG16L1. Autophagy facilitates cells’ removal of old and dysfunctional components as well as those that might be harmful. This process has been implicated in a number of chronic, life-threatening diseases including neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
In the Nature Methods paper, the team at the University of Ottawa describe a method whereby the phosphorylated version of protein ATG16L1 can be detected by Abcam’s RabMAb antibody (ab195242) through important protein assays such as Western blot, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. Phospho-ATG16L1 levels measured using the antibody directly corresponded to the rate of autophagy in the studied cells, meaning that this is also a sensitive tool for studying the rate of induction of new, active autophagosomes.
The RabMAb platform combines the unique properties of the rabbit immune system with Abcam’s antibody platforms to generate recombinant rabbit monoclonals with particularly high affinity and specificity. The recombinant antibody format delivers significantly higher reproducibility and enhanced batch to batch consistency.
Full details can be found in the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-019-0661-y
Learn about RabMAb recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies here.
Read about Abcam’s Custom Solutions offering here.
