Primary Antibodies

The blocking peptide is the antigen we use for immunization during antibody generation so that we can create an antigen-specific antibody. You can use this blocking peptide as a negative control alongside other controls in an immunoassay to give some insight into antibody specificity, but not selectivity.

It’s important to note that the blocking peptide is not an effective control for use with live cells. If you need a control for flow cytometry, we recommend an isotype antibody control instead.

For more details, see our guide to blocking peptides.

Affinity-purified rabbit polyclonal antibodies are mainly IgGs.

In general, upon arrival, the lyophilized antibody (before reconstitution) should be kept at -20°C until use. If kept as a lyophilized powder at -20°C, you can store it safely for several months if you avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles.

After reconstitution, you should sire it at 4°C, and it should retain its reactivity for approximately one week. For long-term storage, aliquot your antibody and store at -20°C until use. The aliquoted samples stored at -20°C should retain their reactivity for approximately 1 year if handled well.

We do not recommend storing the antibodies at -80°C.

The “extracellular” part in the antibody title simply tells you the chosen epitope is facing the extracellular space. Antibodies that don’t have “extracellular” in the product name are antibodies that target an epitope that faces the intracellular space of the cell.

Antibodies that recognize extracellular domains of proteins are great tools for live-cell imaging and live-cell flow cytometry since there’s no need for permeabilization and fixation.