04 Jan 2023

After two decades and more than 30,000 entries, Alzforum’s original Antibodies database has been retired. A listing of antibodies relevant to neurodegenerative disease research, the database had in recent years been rendered increasingly redundant by the proliferation of online antibody compendia and manufacturers’ catalogs. In its place, Alzforum has created a new database, AlzAntibodies. It aims to provide detailed descriptions of antibodies selected by Alzforum curators based on community interest or novelty.

First to be included in AlzAntibodies is a collection of 33 new monoclonal antibodies directed against eight microglia-related proteins: ABI3, ApoE, CD33, CLEC7A, CX3CR1, P2Y12R, TMEM119, and TYROBP/DAP12. This set of antibodies was generated by the Monoclonal Antibody Core Facility at Helmholtz Center Munich. The project was directed by Christian Haass and Sven Lammich at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Regina Feederle at Helmholtz Center Munich, with input on target selection from other scientists in the field. Results of initial tests of these antibodies can be found in AlzAntibodies, and more data will be added as they become available.

Next up are antibodies directed against phospho- and conformational epitopes of tau. Expect to see entries for these antibodies in the coming weeks.

Alzforum welcomes community feedback on this new effort. Which antibodies would you like to see added to the database? Commercially available antibodies, as well as antibodies distributed by academic laboratories, may be included. Have you made an antibody that you would like to share with other researchers? How can we make the entries more helpful to our readers? Please email us at antibodies@alzforum.org.

The old Antibodies database has been archived; it remains accessible but is no longer being updated.—Kathleen Zahs