Antibodypedia, a searchable online database of publicly available antibodies hosted in collaboration with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), is pleased to announce that it now catalogues more than 500,000 individual antibodies, which collectively detect 88% of the proteins encoded by the human genome. Antibodypedia also holds the results of nearly 145,000 experiments performed with these antibodies, as well as 32,000 links to publications related to their use.
Antibodypedia is a free, open-access, and growing resource for data and commentary on antibodies from both commercial and academic providers. The database’s antigen-centric structure allows users to compare the properties of a range of antibodies detecting a particular target. Antibodies are ranked according to their spectrum of efficacy, with peer-reviewed user data contributing to their rankings such that the scoring system recapitulates the community’s preferences.
Mathias Uhlén, a director of the Human Antibody Initiative and co-founder of Antibodypedia, comments that “While Antibodypedia was originally developed with human antigens in mind, we have now incorporated mouse antigens with human cognates and hope soon to complete the input of mouse antigens. This added functionality makes this resource more broadly applicable and benefits many more users.”
Version 7 of Antibodypedia, released in November 2012, provides a more robust search experience through its inclusion of filters users can apply to refine their queries. Additionally, integration with Nature journal manuscript annotation tools, such as gene and protein highlighting and the “Inside this article” box, provides a real-time snapshot of Antibodypedia’s contents to scientists browsing nature.com.
Christopher Surridge, Associate Publisher, NPG, said: “With this updated version of Antibodypedia we have taken what was already a very powerful way for researchers to find the antibodies they needed for their research, and made it quite simply the best database of antibodies anywhere on the Web.”
Antibodypedia continues to forge collaborations with academic working groups such as the Human Protein Atlas, based in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Recombinant Antibody Network, an antibody-generating consortium run by researchers at the University of Chicago, UCSF, and the University of Toronto. According to Tony Kossiakoff of the University of Chicago, principal investigator of RAN, “Antibodies are essential tools for advancing our understanding of biology; however, researchers often spend too many resources on antibodies that do not work for their applications. Antibodypedia and the Recombinant Antibody Network share a common goal in helping scientists accelerate their research by facilitating access to validated antibodies. We believe the natural collaboration between an open-access antibody database and renewable, validated, open-source antibody production initiatives will be a synergistic force toward advancing and accelerating biological research.”
