Immunhistochemistry (IHC) on formalin fixed tissues is a major application for antibodies. However, the vast majority of the more than 2 million commercially available antibodies do not perform appropriately in IHC. The few antibodies that do work well are usually not known to the scientific community because the existing antibodies are not adequately validated. Cross-reactivities (strong binding to another than the target protein) and non-specific binding are the major causes for false IHC results. Many established and IVD/IVDR classified antibodies suffer from significant cross-reactivities resulting in false positivity’s (LINK TO FALSE POSITIVITY PAGE). Appropriate validation of antibodies inevitably requires the use of large numbers of different tissues.

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) enable the simultaneous analysis of more than 600 tissues per section. Studies including thousands of tissues can be executed within days if appropriate TMAs are available. Such clinical studies can evaluate and demonstrate the clinical utility of antibodies and combination of antibodies very rapidly.

Ardoci services: Ardoci works with antibody manufacturers, companies developing IHC products, or IHC service companies to

• Find the best possible antibodies for a target protein and to bring these antibodies to the market.

• Provide a unique documentation of the performance characteristics of antibodies which is way above IVDR standards.

• Permanently ensure the quality of established antibody product.

Ardoci products: Ardoci’s product platform offers ardoci validated antibody products that were generated together with our partners. It only contains antibodies with very high quality for IHC and full documentation of their performance on normal tissues. All antibodies recommended and offered on this homepage have undergone extensive tissue-based validation for use on formalin fixed tissues.

Ardoci know-how. The ardoci team his high expertise in TMA and IHC. We aim to share as much as possible our know-how with the user community. The know how-page features:

• Comparison of antibodies: a tool to compare the normal tissue staining properties of any combination of antibodies on our homepage.

• IHC quiz: You are a surgical pathologist? Here you can test your knowledge in IHC.

• Tissue microarrays: Frequently asked questions.

• Antibody validation issues.