Structural Genomics Consortium and collaborators release renewable recombinant antibodies for 12 high-impact epigenetics targets

Antibodies are first released in massive collaboration to create 'master set' of high-quality renewable epigenetics antibodies

TORONTO, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a group of expert researchers in recombinant antibody technology from the Universities of Toronto and Chicago and an industry partner have entered into a pioneering public-private partnership to generate renewable recombinant antibodies for epigenetic targets.  The first set of ten antibodies, released today, represent a major breakthrough in quality and consistency, historically a significant issue in the antibody industry.

The SGC at the University of Toronto is spearheading the ambitious project. The new antibodies will be featured on the independent antibody review database 1DegreeBio.org.

"The partnership is on its way to producing a set of 200 highly-specific, highly-sensitive antibodies that are validated for specific applications," says Dr. Aled Edwards, Director and CEO, SGC. "This is the first step toward developing a master set of quality epigenetics antibodies that researchers can use for generations to come."

Inconsistency in antibody quality has plagued the scientific community for decades. A lack of industry-wide standards and the high cost of thoroughly validating each antibody generated an influx of products that frequently do not perform as advertised, wasting hundreds of millions of research dollars each year. The new renewable recombinant antibodies are engineered to address these issues, and have been tested for consistent performance across applications.

Validation data and community reviews of the new antibodies may be found on 1DegreeBio.org. The release of these epigenetics-targeted antibodies coincides with the launch of 1DegreeBio's new Epigenetics Portal, where epigenetics researchers can find targets, tools and product data specific to their research.

"These reagents reflect a strong commitment to address a long-standing quality issue in the community," says Alex Hodgson, Managing Director, 1DegreeBio. "1DegreeBio is excited to support these and future reagents, and be the venue to measure their impact."

"Our group is committed to provide high quality antibody validation, " says Edwards.  "We are delighted that 1DegreeBio will provide a vehicle for the research community to share their experiences with these and other reagents."

Epigenetic regulatory proteins are involved in a wide variety of chronic diseases, such as cancer, and are the target of an explosive new field of drug discovery.

About The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)

Located at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford, the not-for-profit organization supports the discovery of new medicines by carrying out open access research in structural and chemical biology. More than 200 researchers in academia and in six pharmaceutical companies collaborate within SGC to accomplish these goals. The SGC is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Genome Canada, the Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Wellcome Trust, Abbott, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda.  More information is available at www.thesgc.org

About 1DegreeBio Inc.

1DegreeBio.org is the world's largest open-access antibody database. Listing more than 800,000 products from 160 suppliers, 1DegreeBio has all the information researchers need to find the right products for their research, including quality validation data, citations, user reviews and ratings. http://1degreebio.org

The 1DegreeBio Epigenetics Portal is the first in a series of sub-sites designed to meet the needs of specific research areas. The next portal will be geared toward stem cell researchers, and will launch in July 2012.

SOURCE 1DegreeBio