The mission of the UC Davis NINDS/NIMH NeuroMab facility is to provide a unique neuroscience-based approach to generating monoclonal antibodies optimized for use in mammalian brain (NeuroMabs). NeuroMabs will be generated from mice immunized with synthetic and recombinant immunogens corresponding to the neuronal proteome as predicted from genomic and other large-scale cloning efforts. Comprehensive biochemical and immunohistochemical analyses of human, primate and non-primate mammalian brain will be incorporated into the initial NeuroMab screening procedure. This will yield a subset of mAbs that are optimized for use in brain (i.e. NeuroMabs): for immunocytochemical-based imaging studies of protein localization in adult, developing and pathological brain samples, for biochemical analyses of subunit composition and post-translational modifications of native brain proteins, and for proteomic analyses of native brain protein networks.

The initial goal of the facility is to generate libraries of NeuroMabs against 250-500 neuronal proteins, initially focusing on membrane proteins (receptors/channels/transporters), synaptic proteins, other neuronal signaling molecules, and proteins with established links to disease states. These NeuroMabs will then be made available to the neuroscience research community on an inexpensive basis as tissue culture supernatants, ascites fluid or purified immunoglobulins, through a service agreement with Antibodies Inc.    See our available catalog here. 

The NeuroMab facility will serve as a tremendous resource to the entire neuroscience community by providing high quality reagents that will serve as the critical link between information emerging from genomic efforts and future proteomic approaches to brain function. Moreover, the unique neuroscience-based approach that the NeuroMab facility will yield reliable antibodies that might not otherwise be available, and the comprehensive biochemical and immunohistochemical verification will save countless investigators the time, money and effort of attempting to use expensive yet suboptimal reagents in their research.  Send suggestions for NeuroMab targets to neuromab@ucdavis.edu.

Funded by NIH grant U23 NS050606 from NINDS and NIMH.

See Also: NeuroMab Web Site