Why species matters when producing new ELISA kits

Today we’re taking a look at our antibody data and our ELISA kit data in a new way – comparing the target species of the top 100 products for both sets.

We’ve been working with product manager Rhys Williams to undertake this analysis, and he joins us today to talk through what the data shows.

This analysis was performed by looking at hundreds of thousands of citations for both antibodies and ELISA kits between 2010 and 2018.

Rhys tells us: “Our antibodies and kits data provide a unique view of the catalogue antibodies and ELISA kits which are most frequently used by researchers. By including the product’s target information we are able to take a closer look at which species are targeted the most in each market.”

There are similarities between both sets, but also some significant differences. Rhys explains: “It comes as no surprise that from the top 100 antibodies, the most targeted species is Homo sapiens, with nearly three quarters of citations being for antibodies against Homo sapiens proteins.

“Similarly, Homo sapiens is also the most targeted species in the top 100 ELISA kits, however at a significantly lower level of just under half.”

However, beyond Homo sapiens we see a far greater balance of species in the top 100 ELISA kits than in the top 100 antibodies. Rhys explains: “We’re seeing a large number of ELISA kits against Mus musculus and against Rattus Norvegicus. Among antibodies these species do feature highly but with no where near the same volume as among ELISA kits.

“Some of the top ELISA kits are also against chemicals such as Corticosterone, Testosterone and cAMP, whereas none of the top 100 antibodies are against any chemical. However, among the top 100 antibodies we do see a number against ‘non-standard’ targets, those such as HA tag and Flag tag.”

What our data is telling us is that there is much more variation in ELISA kit target species than in antibody target species. Rhys explains the significance of this: “Our data is suggesting that for suppliers it is more important to consider the target species when raising kits than antibodies. There is a far more diverse demand for target species in the ELISA kit market, whereas the antibody market is more focused on one species with researchers using the antibodies across species.”

Did you know?

  • The CiteAb Awards 2019 category for ELISA kit supplier of the year was won by R&D Systems. The company supplies over 75 per cent of the top 100 ELISA kits from this dataset, with Thermo Fisher Scientific and Abcam both supplying just under 10 per cent each.
  • The Reagent supplier of the year award for 2019 went to Cell Signaling Technology. The company supplies over a third of the top 100 most cited antibodies, with MilliporeSigma supplying just over a quarter.

Today we’re giving away the target species split for the top 100 products within both our antibodies and ELISA kits datasets for free. To get your copy delivered direct to your inbox sign up below. If you’d like to discuss this data in more detail with Rhys please drop him a line – he’d be happy to hear from you.

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