Published by Bindi M. Doshi, PhD; Cheryl A. Guyre, PhD on
Have you seen comparisons of multimer technology claiming to be superior to tetramers? Be sure to ask which tetramers were used in the comparison! MBL tetramers have a clear advantage over academic tetramers and other commercial MHC multimer products, not only due to the reliability and high quality for every lot produced, but also due to the proprietary alpha-3 mutation. This mutation, engineered into the heavy chain of all of our human and macaque class I tetramers, helps decrease non-specific binding, leading to enhanced specificity. Check out the images below to see the details of this important technology!
MBL tetramers also save you time and reduce errors due to the simple one-step staining procedure for Class I tetramers, where antibodies and tetramers stained simultaneously for 30 minutes at room temperature, as opposed to the two step sequential protocol required for other multimers.
MBLI tetramers are available in PE, APC, and BV421. Biotinylated monomers are also available for assay flexibility and extension of fluorescent options via tetramerization using commercially available streptavidin conjugates.
Learn more about our growing list of tetramer offerings here and our additional flow cytometry antibody offerings here. And if you want our most excellent tetramer staining guide for free, click here.