DMMC Course: TECHNIQUES & STRATEGIES IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE

1330-1415 Friday 10 December 2004. Houston Lecture Theatre, RCSI

Immunodetection methods on cell and tissue extracts Dr Leonie Young, UCD

The use of antibodies to detect and characterise proteins has been well established. With the development of high through-put techniques such as tissue microarrays (TMA), a real challenge now exists to determine the cellular location, level of expression and the function of these identified proteins. In this lecture, principles fundamental to immunodetection will be outlined. Common pitfalls and measures to avoid these will be discussed. Applications of immunodetection in a modern molecular context will be illustrated, including: western blotting, ELISA, immunohistochemistry/ immunofluorescence, tissue microarrays, co-immunprecipitation, Electromobility shift assays, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and antibody arrays.