Institute for Precision Health
Only Good Antibodies Community
Better Antibodies, Better Science, Better Treatments: Making best practices possible, easy, and rewarded.
- Dr Harvinder Virk
- Dr Eva M Krockow
- Dr Michael Biddle
The Only Good Antibodies community was established in April 2023 by a collaboration of biomedical and behavioural researchers from the University of Leicester. We are a diverse collaboration of scientists and stakeholders from across the Biosciences, working to improve research that uses antibodies.
There is a long-known issue with antibodies used for research, in that a large proportion of these antibodies do not recognise the target they are meant to, or they also recognise lots of other targets. Studies suggest that this is a problem for more than half of available antibodies, and has been called the ‘antibody horror show’. OGA aims to address this.
'Good antibodies' are potent and selective in the application of interest and display no lot-to-lot variability. The OGA community will work with all stakeholders to accelerate scientific and drug discovery research by:
- Increasing the availability and use of Good antibodies
- Eliminating the use of poorly-performing antibodies
Antibodies and the reproducibility crisis
Antibodies are one of the most important reagents used in biology and medical research. They are Y-shaped molecules that scientists use for their ability to recognise, and stick to, specific targets. They are used to identify which proteins are present in a biological specimen, and whether there is more or less of a given protein. This means they are used to work out which proteins might be important in disease. Data from antibody experiments informs drug design, and sometimes antibodies themselves are used as drugs.
Unfortunately, a large proportion of antibodies used for research purposes do not recognise the target they are meant to, or they also recognise lots of other targets. Two large studies suggests that this is a problem for more than half of available antibodies. This leads to waste of resources and failures of research projects and drug development.
The reasons for this problem are complex, but include that it has been historically slow, expensive and difficult to perform all the best quality control experiments. Companies are improving their internal processes, and new innovative ways to efficiently perform quality controls in collaboration are also showing promise, read more at YCharOS Inc. However, many researchers are not aware of the issue and do not find it easy to find the best antibodies, nor to perform the necessary quality control experiments. There is also a need to change the research environment and culture to address this problem.
The OGA community was established in April 2023 by a collaboration of biomedical and behavioural researchers from the University of Leicester. We are part of the wider movement to improve research integrity and reproducibility, we are an affiliate stakeholder in the UK Reproducibility Network. We are learning from this wider community, and our work also represents an opportunity for learning in the wider context of research reproducibility and integrity.
The team have been awarded an MRC Better Methods, Better Research award to work with the community to raise awareness, develop educational resources and promote best practices with all stakeholders. To drive this forward they have been working closely with the National Centre for the Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (NC3Rs). The OGA community and the NC3Rs recently published the outcomes and action plans from their joint workshop with stakeholder across science.
We are a diverse collaboration of basic, clinical, data and behavioural scientists and technicians from academia, industry, and non-profit organisations. We are actively engaging all stakeholders as part of our initiative including:
- Representatives of 32 UK universities that are part of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN)
- End users - researchers (that's us), including via UKRN Local Networks
- Research funding agencies including:
- Patient advocacy organisations:
- Experts in antibody production:
- Experts in antibody quality control:
- Experts in drug development: AstraZeneca
- Research reagent database providers:
- Publishers and journals:
- eLife
- Nature Protocols
- F1000
- The Company of Biologists (and their five journals)
- Wiley
Further reading
- Improving the integrity and reproducibility of research that uses antibodies: a technical, data sharing, behavioral and policy challenge Read the paper
- YCharOS: a potential solution to the ‘antibody horror show’
- Careers: Tales of the unexpected Read the paper
- The Only Good Antibodies Community Mission and about us.