Antibody Handling and Storage

Addgene recommends the following steps to ensure proper handling and storage of your antibody for future use. If there is a problem, please contact Addgene within 60 days of receiving your antibody.

Safety

Please refer to Addgene's antibody Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and your institution's laboratory safety guidelines before use.

Antibody Shipping

Most of our antibodies are tested for shipping stability by incubating at 37 °C for 2 weeks, freezing at -80 °C, thawing on ice, and then testing for loss of potency against a non-treated control in one of its recommended assays. If an antibody has passed stability testing, it may ship at room temperature. However, Addgene determines ideal shipping conditions for each order based on the total items in the order, ensuring each item ships safely and most economically. Actual shipping conditions will be shown in your cart.

Antibody Storage

Your antibody is supplied as a liquid, either on blue ice or at room temperature. If using immediately, store at 4 °C or on ice. For long-term storage, consult the product information on our website for the optimal storage temperature, as each antibody may have different recommended storage temperatures.

If freezing your antibody, first centrifuge the sample for 30 seconds at 10,000 x g to draw down the liquid and then prepare single-use aliquots. Store single-use aliquots at -20 °C in a manual defrost freezer. Avoid multiple freeze-thaw cycles.

Using Your Antibody

To prevent microbial contamination, many of our antibodies are stored in PBS with 1 mM sodium azide. This buffer is not compatible for use in live cells and will interfere with conjugation. For applications such as these, the buffer can be removed by dialysis or gel filtration. Refer to the buffer exchange section of our Recombinant Antibody Affinity Purification protocol for more details.

Before beginning an experiment, we encourage you to refer to the primary publication associated with the antibody. Please note that antibody performance will vary across sample types and experimental parameters and will require optimization for your specific experiment.

Antibody Verification

Addgene has verified that each antibody recognizes the expected antigen in a recommended application. For information about recommended applications for specific antibodies, please visit the item’s catalog page on our website. For more information on our production process, visit our Antibody Production page.

Citations in Future Publications

Antibodies were prepared using plasmids created by your colleagues. Please acknowledge the Principal Investigator, cite the article listed on the antibody catalog page, and include the Addgene antibody catalog number in future publications.

Contact Addgene

Thank you for requesting antibodies from Addgene. If you have questions or would like to speak with an Addgene scientist, contact us at .