Immunochemistry
The ability to measure the interactions between antigens and antibodies is fundamental to work done by the laboratory. Immunochemical technologies in routine use include
- double (Ouchterlony) immunodiffusion
- quantitative precipitin reactions
- agglutination including passive hemagglutination and latex agglutination
- enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
- various forms of immunoblot (one dimensional and two dimensional)
A plate reader and plate washer are available for ELISA. Various power packs and electrophoretic transfer equipment are used for immunoblots. Visualization of immunoblots is done with a Bio-Rad ChemiDoc XRS+ imaging system.
Purification and characterization of antigens and antibodies is done with a full array of systems for liquid chromatography and electrophoresis. Antibody purification uses four Isco low pressure liquid chromatography systems. Antigen purification is done with a Bio-Rad high pressure liquid chromatography system.
Antibody labeling is done in house on a routine basis. Labels include various enzymes, fluorophores and biotin/streptavidin. Antibody fragmentation is also done in house to prepare Fab and F(ab')2 fragments.
Highly immunogenic constructs of peptides and polysaccharides are prepared by conjugation of haptens to protein carriers. A variety of coupling chemistries are used to optimize conjugate formation and conjugate immunogenicity.
Imaging of the interactions between antibodies and microbes is a core technology for the laboratory. Several images have been used for cover art for scientific journals and textbooks. Fluorescence microscopy is done with a Zeiss LSM 700 laser scanning microscope.