Antibody and WBS Lysate FAQs

What makes OriGene the optimal source for antibodies?
Answer: All of OriGene’s antibodies have been validated by Western blot analysis and are guaranteed to detect the protein of the predicted molecular weight.  In addition, a positive control (an aliquot of a cell lysate with the corresponding antigen overexpressed) and a basal expression level control (pCMV expression vector transfected cell lysate) are included with every antibody order.

What are the terms of OriGene’s antibody guarantee?
Answer: We guarantee that our validated antibodies will detect the corresponding protein at the predicted molecular weight in the gene specific Western blot standard (WBS) provided with each antibody.  If you encounter any difficulty detecting the antigen in OriGene’s WBS lysate, our Technical Services professionals will help troubleshoot and optimize your experimental conditions.

How can OriGene offer this quality guarantee?
Answer: OriGene has the world’s largest collection of full-length, expression-ready cDNA clones.  We have used this vast collection to generate overexpression cell lysates (WBS Lysates) by transiently transfecting HEK293T cells with the TrueClone cDNAs.  This creates gene-specific WBSs that serve as high-quality antigen standards for the validation of all OriGene antibodies by Western blot analysis.  Only antibodies that pass our stringent quality control experiments and meet our high standards for specificity and sensitivity are provided.

How can OriGene ensure that the antibody I’m interested in detects the endogenous, overexpressed or down-regulated protein?
Answer: OriGene only sells antibodies that meet the following criteria: (1) detection of the protein at the predicted molecular weight from a gene-specific WBS, (2) detection of the endogenous protein at the corresponding molecular weight, and (3) optimized signal to noise ratio.  When available, OriGene uses the WBSs of other protein family members side by side in Western blot analysis to demonstrate the high specificity of our antibodies.  View examples of this specificity demonstrated with AKT and GSK3 family members on our website.

Does OriGene guarantee that the antibody will detect the endogenous or overexpressed protein prepared by the customer?
Answer: No.  Since OriGene cannot confirm that your cell line, tissue or overexpression construct produces the specific protein at levels detectable by Western blotting, we cannot guarantee positive detection of the antigen using our validated antibody.

How do OriGene’s antibody prices compare to other companies’ prices?
Answer:  On average, OriGene’s antibodies and our Western blot reagent cost less than our competitors’ products but guarantee the highest quality. 

Does OriGene sell validated WBS Lysates separately?
Answer: Yes.  We have both non-denatured and denatured WBSs available for each antibody.  Please see our website for a list of available lysates that can be purchased separately.

What is OriGene’s guarantee for validated WBS Lysates?
Answer: The gene-specific WBSs are guaranteed to contain overexpressed protein of the appropriate molecular weight as determined by Western blot analysis using the corresponding antibody from OriGene.

Do the WBSs serve any purpose other than antigen standards in Western blot analysis?
Answer: Yes.  The non-denatured WBSs can be used for immunoprecipitation in order to enrich for the protein of interest.  In addition, the non-denatured WBSs derived from kinase and phosphatase cDNA transfection can be used for kinase and phosphatase assays, respectively.

Are the antibodies monoclonal or polyclonal?
Answer: All our anti-tag antibodies are monoclonal (mouse) and our HRP conjugated secondary antibody is polyclonal anti-mouse antibody that is made from goat.

Are OriGene’s antibodies raised against short peptides or whole proteins?
Answer: While most of polyclonal antibodies are raised against short peptides, the whole or partial proteins are used in the immunization protocol to generate rabbit monoclonal antibodies.

Do your antibodies work in immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence experiments?  Will they work with formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples?
Answer: We are currently in progress of testing our antibodies for their potential uses in other applications than Western blot analysis.  If you have found that our antibodies can be of some uses in those above-mentioned applications, please let us know.

What source do you use for the predicted molecular weight of the antigen corresponding to each antibody?Answer: We mainly use the swissprot webpage to help predict the molecular weight of unprocessed protein.  Please see the following link: http://www.expasy.org/sprot/

What are the terms of OriGene’s Western detecting reagents guarantee?
Answer:  We guarantee that our horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated anti-mouse secondary antibody in conjuction with Western Blotting Luminol Reagent will detect the corresponding monoclonal anti-Tag antibodies used in Western blot analysis. If you encounter any difficulty detecting the antigen in OriGene’s WBS lysate, our Technical Services professionals will help troubleshoot and optimize your experimental conditions.

Do you have isotype controls available?
Answer: No.  As we offer the validated antibodies only, we do not think it is necessary to include such kind of control in the Western blotting.  However, if wanted, you can purchase the control immunoglobulin from other companies.