When you are trying to characterize a novel protein, or you have developed a unique biological product, often the specialized antibodies you need just don’t exist. What if there was a technology that could overcome this limitation, allowing you to carry out research that was previously impossible? Find out how Bio-Rad's custom antibody services can provide the solution.


Find the right antibody

Finding the right antibody among the thousands that are available from hundreds of commercial sources is just the first challenge. Reagent qualification, method validation and achieving consistent, reproducible results are all critical to success, whether you are working in discovery research or developing assays for clinical or diagnostic use.

Say goodbye to traditional methods

Turning to traditional methods of antibody generation that rely on the immunization of animals is a common approach. But you could wait many months to discover that none of the clones meet your needs. Your antigen may not induce a strong immune response in the animal, or worse still, it may be toxic. Furthermore, many organizations now actively seek to use technologies and reagents that replace, or reduce the use of animals for scientific purposes.

Achieve more

Having a custom recombinant antibody takes away the pain of sourcing and testing multiple commercial products, or waiting for custom hybridoma generation. It eliminates the risk of having to revalidate methods due to product deletion or loss of a hybridoma. The batch-to-batch consistency of recombinant production increases the likelihood of achieving reproducible results over the course of your project. Having an antibody tailored to your unique requirements may even allow you to carry out research that was previously impossible.

Antibodies designed for you

For these reasons and many others, scientists come to Bio-Rad’s custom antibody experts. We use an in vitro recombinant antibody technology to generate antibodies that exactly meet your needs. Our service centers on the well-established and powerful HuCAL® antibody library and CysDisplay®, a proprietary method of phage display, combined with automated, high-throughput processes developed and enhanced by our own scientists since we first started offering this service in 2003.

Using this technology, along with our many years of experience in project design and planning, we generate highly specific, high affinity antibodies with high success rates. No immunization of animals is involved, unlike traditional methods of antibody generation. The method is carried out in vitro, allowing us to guide the selection of antibodies to the desired specificity. A standard project results in purified Fab antibodies ready for dispatch 8 weeks after panning of the library begins, compared to a generation time of 4 to 9 months with conventional monoclonal approaches that rely on animal immunization. Antibodies are sequenced, establishing their identity and giving long-term security of supply. We manufacture the recombinant antibodies in E. coli or mammalian cells. If required, you can obtain the sequences of the antibodies you are interested in, or even receive the antibody genes delivered in a ready-to-use expression vector along with appropriate guidelines for expression and purification.

What more could you achieve with custom antibodies designed just for you?

Discover the technology behind Bio-Rad’s custom recombinant antibodies

Watch our latest video to see inside Bio-Rad’s custom antibody facility. Learn from antibody experts how your requirements for specialized custom antibodies can become a reality through the use of HuCAL technology.


Special features of the custom antibody service from Bio-Rad

  • Highly specific, high affinity recombinant monoclonal antibodies
  • Fab antibodies selected in 8 weeks
  • Mono- and bivalent Fab formats with detection tags
  • Conversion to full length immunoglobulin with a choice of isotypes
  • Antibodies sequenced for long-term security of supply
  • No immunization of animals
  • Dedicated, highly experienced technical experts to design and manage your project