Everest Biotech, a manufacturer of high quality novel antibodies for the international research market, is delighted to announce the winners of its inaugural Antibody Creation Grant. Worth up to $100,000, the funding was offered to research labs around the world.
The winners are:
* Professor Gillian Griffith (University of Cambridge, UK): To characterize and investigate the less known components involved in the cytotoxic T cell function.
* Assistant Professor Melinda Larsen (University at Albany-SUNY, USA): To fully investigate and map the presence and localization of proteins involved in the development of salivary glands, leading to a deeper understanding of Sjogren’s syndrome.
* Assistant Professor Bernard Lassegue (Emory University, USA): Looking at the organization and regulation of the components of NADP-oxidases.
* Associate Professor Michael Tuvim (University of Texas, USA): Focusing on the regulation of mucus formation in airways. Everest Biotech and Dr Tuvim will work closely together to generate the required reagents, thus dramatically speeding up the research in this area.
* Professor Michihiro Igarashi (Niigata University, Japan): Investigating the components of growth cones in adult brains. The proteomic approach has identified a number of proteins involved in higher brain functions through these growth cones. Everest Biotech antibodies will be used to further investigate and characterize the mechanisms of neuronal organization and repair, therefore, leading to groundbreaking neuroscience.
Everest Biotech CSO, Dr Jan Voskuil, commented: “The response to the grant was phenomenal, with applicants from all over the world competing for the $100,000. Everest Biotech’s scientific board had a very hard job in picking a single winner, such was the calibre of entries. In the end, we decided to split the prize across five groups that we felt would benefit most from the award, and we congratulate the winners. Everest Biotech is delighted and excited about our contribution to these projects. It is accepted that antigen affinity-purified peptide antibodies complement and often outperform existing monoclonal antibodies. We hope that the variety of winning projects will maximize the impact Everest Biotech will have on the progress in medical science.”
Award winner Professor Igarashi added: “We are honoured to be one of the winning groups. This was a very competitive grant and the team at Niigata University is very proud of this achievement. We would like to thank Everest Biotech for its contribution to our research. If specific antibodies are successfully produced, our work on cone behaviour will be rapidly accelerated resulting in new and important neuroscience findings.”
The winning groups will receive up to 2 mg of antigen affinity-purified goat polyclonal antibody against each peptide at no cost. Everest Biotech will then commercialize the remainder of the batch. Antigen affinity-purified anti-peptide polyclonal antibodies come closest to monoclonal antibodies, yet have higher affinity and are better suited for a wide range of applications. Goats produce larger batches than rabbits and, therefore, their antibodies are preferred over other polyclonal antibodies for bulk applications where monoclonal antibodies fail.
Everest Biotech
