Antibody search and profiling (Beta version) on Springer Nature Experiments

Springer Nature Experiments launches new antibody-focused solution to support experimental reproducibility
Published in Protocols & Methods
Antibody search and profiling (Beta version) on Springer Nature Experiments
Like

The pace of scientific research largely depends on the reproducibility of published experimental results. However, more often than not, irreproducibility has a major impact on the valuable time and resources spent by scientists. In 2016, a Nature survey revealed that more than 50% of the Life science researchers failed to reproduce the experiments either published by other researchers or by themselves. Another alarming study estimated the costs associated with irreproducible research to be around $28 billion per year.  One major aspect of the reproducibility crisis is the information about reagents and especially about antibodies published in scientific research

The Springer Nature Experiments team realizes the importance of this crisis and has been engaging the research community to better understand the problems related to reproducibility of the experiments with antibodies. After gathering insights from researchers and looking at various reagent platforms, it was evident that there is a need for a solution that collects the scattered data and shows the specific usage of antibodies in experimental conditions in a given publication. 

In this regard, Springer Nature Experiments has launched an antibody search and profiling solution. This beta version provides at-a-glance data on the specific experimental conditions for some of the top-cited antibodies appearing in a specially curated set of protocols. The user guide below will kick-start your exploration. 

The Experiments platform is built by researchers for researchers and in this regard, we invite you to participate and help optimize this research platform.

To explore the new antibody features, click on the message below the search bar which directs to the antibody search page. A search for anti-rabbit igG experiments on Google will give the results directly for the new antibody pages on the Experiments platform.

Antibody Search Page

On the antibody search page, a short summary for each antibody is provided which helps in the initial evaluation of the overall data present in the respective antibody profile pages. Each summary contains the name of the antibody, its target protein (also called an antigen), type of antibody (primary or secondary), and the techniques in which the antibodies were used as a reagent. Note: This data is limited only to a curated set of papers. Filters are also given to select one antibody at a time. Then click on the antibody name on the summary leads to the antibody profile page.

Antibody profile page

For this release, we have five antibody profile pages - anti-rabbit IgG antibody, anti-phospho-Akt antibody, anti-Flag M2 antibody, anti-β-Actin antibody, and anti-caspase 3 antibody. The antibody profile pages contain critical information required to select a protocol and/or the antibody for the laboratory implementation. 

The information about the antibody in the tabular format is as follows:

  • Technique in which the antibody is used as a reagent

  • Host in which the antibody was raised, it can be an animal or a cell line

  • Final concentration (in dilutions or other units)

  • Details of the supplier such as vendor name and catalog number

  • Conjugate (e.g. fluorescent dyes, enzymes, etc.)

  • Buffer with the name and its recipe which is mostly used to dilute the antibody 

  • Figure represents the experimental results of the technique to understand the “effectiveness” of the antibody

  • Protocol title and the link to the evaluation page

Antibody filter on the search page

For selecting protocols based on the antibodies, there is an antibody filter on the search page. The filter allows the selection of any antibody, alone or in combination with another antibody or technique or other filters. However, for the Beta release, we have limited the feature for selected papers only.

The Springer Nature Experiments team works continuously to help and address the problems faced by researchers. Once again, we eagerly wait for the opportunity to work with you. For any questions and feedback, do write back to us at experiments@springernature.com

Please sign in or register for FREE

If you are a registered user on Research Communities by Springer Nature, please sign in