Can someone explain, in simple terms, when it’s better to use monoclonal versus polyclonal antibodies? I kind of understand the difference in theory, but I’m still unsure which performs better for Western blots versus ELISA
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Moin zusammen! Ich war eigentlich kurz davor, komplett mit Online-Spielen aufzuhören. Zu viele Verluste, keine Lust mehr. Dann hab ich beim Scrollen auf Social Media plötzlich spinmama gesehen und dachte mir: Ein letzter Versuch! Und siehe da – Book of Dead hat mir den Abend gerettet. Ich hab das verlorene Geld wieder drin und noch was draufgelegt. Vielleicht war’s Zufall, vielleicht auch ein bisschen Glück, aber das hat wieder Spaß gemacht.
I actually mix them depending on what I’m doing. For Western blots, monoclonals are a lifesaver — clean and specific. But for immunofluorescence, I sometimes use polyclonals to get stronger signals. One lesson I’ve learned is that blocking and secondary choice matter just as much as the primary antibody type. You can have a great antibody, but if your buffer setup is wrong, it’ll still fail.
I used to be confused about this too. In short, monoclonal antibodies are perfect when you need high specificity — they bind to a single epitope and give cleaner results. Polyclonals, on the other hand, can be more sensitive but may cause background in complex samples. When I started working on a signaling pathway project, I switched to monoclonals for my Western blots, and the difference was huge. Gentaur https://gentaur.co.uk/antibodies/ has a nice overview of both types, with details on what each one is best for, which helped me choose correctly. My advice: always match your antibody type to your experiment — not the other way around.