Antibody Facility

The WEHI Antibody Facility provides antibody services to academic researchers and commercial clients.

Established in 1991 the facility is staffed by an experienced and multidisciplinary team who work collaboratively with researchers, providing expert advice and versatility in experimental design. The team can develop monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to novel targets, and adapt and refine protocols to suit researcher requirements.

Core services include:

• Monoclonal and polyclonal antibody production
• ELISA assays for quantification of antibody titre
• Cloning hybridomas by limiting dilution
• Purification of monoclonal antibodies from hybridoma supernatant
• IgG Purification from sera
• Screening of fusion supernatant by ELISA
• Screening of antibodies using western blots
• Provision of fusion supernatant to researchers for screening by immunofluorescence and FACS analysis
• Isotyping of monoclonal antibody supernatants
• Adaption of cell lines to media suitable for growing in bioreactors
• In vitro production of monoclonal antibodies using bioreactor technology
• Monoclonal antibody purification from many, varied bioreactor supernatants
• Conjugation of monoclonal antibodies (FITC, Pacific Blue, APC, HRP, Biotin, Alexafluors)
• Antibody production: 1-10 mg, 10-50 mg, 50-500 mg
• Thawing, culturing and preparing cell freezings for shipping or long-term storage
• Mycoplasma testing of cell lines
• Endotoxin testing of cell lines
• Treatment of cell lines contaminated with endotoxin
• Analysing antibodies using Octet

An extensive repository of purified antibodies is available and can be conjugated to meet specific researcher requirements.

Nanobodies are laboratory-made antibody fragments from camelids or cartilaginous fish that consist of a single heavy chain variable domain. Nanobodies are of interest as both therapeutics and research tools due to their small size, high antigen-binding affinity and their increased stability across temperature and pH range.

To generate nanobodies, our researchers immunise alpacas with a target protein. Nanobody genes from isolated plasma cells of the immunised alpaca are then cloned to produce a nanobody library. Using this library, researchers perform rounds of screening to obtain target-specific nanobodies. The resulting nanobodies are expressed in bacterial systems.

To inquire about nanobody research platforms please contact nanobody.platform@wehi.edu.au.

To inquire about antibody services and prices, please contact:

Kaye Wycherley, Head, Antibody Services
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Biotechnology Centre
4 Research Ave, LaTrobe University, Bundoora 3086

+61 3 9345 2286
wycherley.k@wehi.edu.au