Antigens & CD Reagents
Small Molecule Antigen & Antibody
When the target is too small to be immunogenic on its own, the chemistry of the hapten decides the antibody.
Small molecules — antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, mycotoxins, drugs of abuse — cannot trigger an immune response alone. They must be conjugated to a carrier protein through a linker, and the position and length of that linker determine which part of the molecule the resulting antibody sees. Design the hapten well and you get an antibody that distinguishes the analyte from its metabolites; design it poorly and the assay cross-reacts with everything.
We handle the whole chain: hapten derivatisation, KLH/BSA/OVA conjugation with confirmed coupling ratio, immunisation, antisera screening by competitive ELISA, and monoclonal development when a defined clone is needed for a commercial kit.
Applications
| Application | Representative examples | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Therapeutic drug monitoring | Antibiotics, immunosuppressants, anti-epileptics | Clinical blood concentration assays where the antibody must discriminate the parent drug from inactive metabolites. |
| Food & feed safety | Mycotoxins, veterinary residues, pesticide residues | Rapid screening strips and ELISA kits used at receiving inspection, where false negatives carry regulatory consequence. |
| Environmental monitoring | Water contaminants, industrial chemicals | Field-deployable immunoassays for screening large sample numbers before confirmatory LC-MS/MS. |
Product highlights
- Hapten design service with linker position evaluated for specificity.
- Confirmed conjugation ratio by MALDI-TOF or UV spectroscopy.
- Competitive ELISA screening against structural analogues to map cross-reactivity.
- Sensitivity typically in the ppb range for pesticide and mycotoxin targets.
- Matched coating antigen and antibody supplied together for competitive formats.
Specifications & QC
- Carrier proteins
- KLH, BSA, OVA, HSA
- Conjugation chemistry
- Active ester, maleimide, EDC/NHS, diazotisation
- Characterisation
- Coupling ratio, SDS-PAGE shift, UV scan
- Assay format
- Competitive ELISA, lateral flow, time-resolved fluorescence
Related products & services
- Matched Antibody PairsCapture–detection pairs screened for sandwich ELISA, CLIA and lateral flow with low background.
- Polyclonal AntibodiesRabbit and goat polyclonal antibodies with multi-epitope recognition, plus custom production from your antigen.
- Custom Peptide Synthesis5–50 mg peptides at ≥95% HPLC purity, with KLH, BSA or OVA conjugation for immunisation.
Next step
Tell us the target, we will tell you what is feasible
Send the sequence, assay format and sensitivity you need. You will get a technical assessment — recommended platform, timeline and the risks worth knowing before you commit budget.