Polyclonal antibody production involves immunizing rabbits with a selected antigen. The subcutaneous immunizations continue until the animal reaches the desired response, measured by indirect ELISA. The resulting antiserum is purified to remove antigen specific polyclonal antibody for use in custom assays.
Antibody Experience, Quality and Customer Dedication
Green Mountain Antibodies has been developing monoclonal antibodies from our Burlington, Vermont facility for over 24 years. To better support our pharmaceutical, diagnostic and research customers, we now offer polyclonal antibody production services in rabbits. We invite our new and current customers to try a polyclonal development project with our technical team.
All rabbit serum is collected at an OLAW compliant, USDA licensed facility which holds EC 1069/2009 registration as a blood collection facility; making it easy to ship the serum to the EU.
Our goal is to partner with our customers in providing monoclonal and polyclonal antibody reagents for their pre-clinical trials and research. GMAb’s highly trained scientists manage the custom projects from antigen design through production, purification and characterization. A close working relationship with our customer allows us to understand the project end goals, as well as modify a program mid-stream if the goals shift. Our polyclonal antibody production service offers the same flexibility and customer support given to our hybridoma development services. Peptide and protein immunogen projects are most common, with added experience within anti-idiotypic antibody development used for controls in ADA assays.
Typical Polyclonal Antibody Production Program
A typical rabbit polyclonal antibody production project begins by immunizing between 2 and 10 New Zealand White rabbits with the selected antigen. Number of rabbits is determined by customer timeline, antigenicity of the immunogen, and the volume of serum required. Appropriate antibody titers are typically seen within 3 months to put the rabbits on a production bleed collection cycle.
The standard GMAb rabbit immunization schedule for polyclonal antibody production is as follows. Rabbits are not euthanized or terminally bled until the customer confirms the appropriate amount of serum has been collected. Production bleed volumes are dependent on rabbit size and typically range from 12 to 25ml, increasing in scale as the rabbit ages. Total project collection volumes typically range from 250ml to 5L. Expected antibody yields are between 5-10mg per mL.
Project schedules are provided at the start of the project so the program is predictable and timelines are reliable.
| Action | Injection Day |
| Pre-bleed | day 0 |
| Initial Inoculation | day 0 |
| Boost | day 14 |
| Boost | day 28 |
| Production Bleed | day 42 |
| Boost | day 56 |
| Production Bleed | day 70 |
| Boost | day 84 |
| Exsanguination | day 98 |
Polyclonal antibody production project schedules and data will be shared with customers via Sharefile, our online interface that is always readily available for login. Your dedicated Project Manager is also available to guide and support you through the program.
Polyclonal Antibody Production: Purification and Characterization
Green Mountain Antibodies offers purification of rabbit polyclonal antibody by Protein G, as well as antigen specific affinity purification using custom columns. IgG depletion, or an IgG polishing step, can also be included for polyclonal antibody production projects using monoclonal antibodies as immunogens.
While antibody yields from Protein A purification may be 5-10mg/mL, antigen specific antibody from affinity column purification will yield 2-10% of the total antibody.
Please contact us to discuss your polyclonal antibody production project and get a customized quote at sales@greenmoab.com. To share project details, send along the Polyclonal Initiation Form.
Additional Services:
- Mouse Monoclonal Antibodies: Hybridoma Development
- ELISA Assay Development
- Large Scale Antibody Production and Purification
- Rapid Immunizations Multiple Sites (RIMMS)