Antibody Techniques

Question 1

What are antibodies

Answer 1

Y shape globular proteins produced as part of the bodies immune response
Each antibody has a complementary region for an antigen

Question 2

What are antigens

Answer 2

Anything that produces an immune response

Question 3

What are monoclonal antibodies

Answer 3

Immunoassay techniques require stocks of monoclonal antibodies.
To produce pure monoclonal antibodies, a single line of lymphocytes must be grown each secreting the same specific antibody. (somatic cell fusion)

Question 4

What are monoclonal antibodies used in

Answer 4

Diagnosis and detection of disease

For example immunoassay techniques such as ELISA involve the use of monoclonal antibodies that have enzyme attatched

Question 5

Types of ELISA

Answer 5

Direct
Indirect
Sandwich
Competitive

Question 6

What is western blotting

Answer 6

Technique for identifying specific proteins that have been separated using gel electrophoresis. The proteins are blotted from the gel onto a solid medium recording their final presence on a more convenient medium. Filter is then flooded with monoclonal antibodies and once they have bound to target proteins the excess is washed away. When exposed to a certain wavelength of light the fluorescent antibodies allow the location of proteins to be identified