Functional Assays

ImmunologyFunctional Assays

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Functional assays allow researchers to monitor key cellular processes such as apoptosis, proliferation, and metabolism, as well as internalization processes like phagocytosis and endocytosis. They also enable cell tracking and monitoring of ion transport, and can be used to assess cytotoxicity by measuring changes in viability, mitochondrial function, or cell cycle progression. Critically, because functional assays replicate a particular biological system in vitro, they can aid in promoting the growth of specific cell types or advance understanding of a particular disease. Many functional assays depend on certain critical reagents – namely, antibodies, recombinant proteins, and reagents certified as being suitable for GMP.

Antibodies in Functional Assays

Antibodies are essential components of a broad array of functional assays, including their use for cellular activation. For example, antibodies that recognize the T cell receptor (TCR) are widely used to assess T cell proliferation, which is triggered by receptor binding. Antibodies can also be used for neutralization assays, such as those performed when developing drugs to prevent viral infection of cells, or for blocking cell surface receptors to determine how this impacts cellular behavior. We offer a growing portfolio of antibodies for functional assays, including LEAF™ and Ultra-LEAF™ formulations that are designed to eliminate unwanted effects from endotoxin and sodium azide. We have also developed GoInVivo™ antibodies, which are endotoxin and pathogen-tested, provided in bulk sizing, and available for targeting immune checkpoint receptors in cancer research studies.

Recombinant Proteins for Cell Culturing and Bioassays

Recombinant proteins such as cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors are frequently used for studying cellular processes of interest. Common applications include activation of signaling pathways, chemotaxis, differentiation, polarization, and proliferation, as well as many different inhibitory functions. Additionally, recombinant proteins provide cultured cells with key nutrients essential to their growth. For recombinant proteins to perform as expected, they must be proven to exhibit appropriate activity within a biologically relevant system. At BioLegend, each lot of our bioassay-validated recombinant proteins undergoes quality testing by functional assay to safeguard experimental performance.

GMP Reagents

Biofunctional antibodies, proteins, and cell culture reagents produced under Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are critical for many research, cell bioprocessing, and cell manufacturing applications. Our GMP reagents are manufactured in a dedicated GMP facility in alignment with current GMP standards and are supplied with quality documentation and full traceability under independent Quality Assurance oversight. To guarantee performance, our GMP products undergo extensive quality control testing for biological activity, purity, stability, concentration, endotoxin, pathogens, sterility, and other tests appropriate to the product type. Among our reagents, Cell-Vive™ T-NK Xeno-Free Serum Substitute, GMP is particularly innovative as it is a defined media reagent that replaces human AB serum (a common additive for culturing stem cells, PBMCs, NK, or T cells). This provides researchers with greater control over culture conditions.