Introducing the Affinity Binder Knockdown Initiative⿿A public⿿private partnership for validation of affinity reagents

Abstract

The newly launched Affinity Binder Knockdown Initiative encourages antibody suppliers and users to join this public⿿private partnership, which uses crowdsourcing to collect characterization data on antibodies. Researchers are asked to share validation data from experiments where gene-editing techniques (such as siRNA or CRISPR) have been used to verify antibody binding. The initiative is launched under the aegis of Antibodypedia, a database designed to allow comparisons and scoring of publicly available antibodies towards human protein targets. What is known about an antibody is the foundation of the scoring and ranking system in Antibodypedia.

Keywords: Antibody quality; CRISPR; Crowdsourcing; Reproducibility; Validation; siRNA.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein U-like 1 (HNRNPUL1) is a nuclear RNA-binding protein that binds specifically to the adenovirus E1B⿿55 kDa oncoprotein. Confocal images of immunofluorescently stained human U-2 OS cells; the protein HNRNPUL1 is shown in green and the microtubules in red. The image to the left shows cells transfected with control siRNA, and the image to the right shows cells where HNRNPUL1 has been downregulated more than 75% with specific siRNA. This data can be viewed online on www.antibodypedia.com/gene/17170/HNRNPUL1/antibody/693797/HPA046290.