FAQs | Technical Support | All Products

General

Email is the best way to contact us with product questions. To help us answer your inquiry effectively and efficiently, please include as many details as possible. Alternatively, you can call the office during office hours, Mon-Fri 9AM to 5PM Pacific Time. Email: techsupport@stressmarq.com Phone: 1.250.294.9065
The product detail page on the website contains the most up-to-date information about a product. If you find any discrepancies or require any clarification, please contact us.  
Scientific publications utilizing StressMarq products can be found on the product detail pages, under the "Product Citations" section. Product citations are updated regularly. A list of product citations for our PFFs, oligomers and monomers can be found on the respective Alpha Synuclein, Tau and Amyloid Beta overview pages.
StressMarq products are shipped with a datasheet that specifies how the product should be stored. Please follow the specific storage directions for each product. We cannot guarantee performance of the product if it was not stored as recommended.

Antibodies

The concentration of our purified antibodies is listed on the product datasheet. The concentration of unpurified polyclonal and ascites monoclonal antibodies cannot be determined as the antiserum contains proteins other the antibody.
Every user must determine the optimal concentration of antibody needed for their particular application and tissue type. Recommended starting dilutions for our antibodies is listed on the product datasheet. Here are some general guidelines to get you started:
Purified Antibody Antiserum Ascites Fluid
WB 1:1000 (1 µg/ml) 1:1000 1:1000
IHC/ICC 1:500 (2 µg/ml) 1:100 1:100
ELISA 1:10000 (0.1 µg/ml) 1:500 1:10000
FACS/FCS 1:1000 (1 µg/ml) 1:500 1:1000
IP 1:1000 (1 µg/ml) 1:100 1:100
We highly recommend that you aliquot your antibody into one-time use vials in order to avoid multiple freeze-thaw cycles. Determine how much antibody you will need for one experiment and aliquot accordingly. Aliquots with less than 5-10 µl of volume may suffer from evaporation, resulting in a large change in the stock concentration.
The concentration of PBS in our buffered antibodies is 0.01M (10mM).
The epitope (region within the immunogen that the antibody binds) is rarely mapped for antibodies, therefore unless it is listed on the datasheet under the “Immunogen” field, it is unavailable.
Whenever possible we will provide the immunogen sequence used to generate an antibody on the product datasheet. Often, the sequence is proprietary and therefore we are unable to disclose the sequence.
Unfortunately sometimes products need to be discontinued for a variety of reasons. We understand that this can be frustrating. We will do our best to recommend a comparable product as an alternative. Please contact us for assistance at 1.250.294.9065 or info@stressmarq.com.
We aim to keep our website up-to-date with newly validated species and applications. If you are looking for a specific species or application, please check the product page on our website or contact us for further information at info@stressmarq.com.
If you are unable to find an antibody that has been tested for use in your species, then you will need to identify an antibody that is most likely to be reactive in your species. To do this, perform an amino acid sequence alignment using the immunogen sequence used to generate the antibody, and the sequence of your target protein. We recommend using Uniprot (http://www.uniprot.org/) to find and align your sequences. This will output the percentage of alignment. Over 80% alignment provides a good indication that the antibody may cross-react with your species. StressMarq does not guarantee that an antibody will work in an untested species. If you would like to test a sample size of an antibody on an untested species, please see the details of our Antibody Sample Program.  
A clone number is assigned to a monoclonal antibody that is produced by a single line of hybridoma cells. It is a unique identifier that is assigned by the manufacturer of the hybridoma clone. It is separate from a lot/batch number in that one clone can have many lots/batches.
The certificate of analysis is a quality control document that validates that a product has met the standards set out by the product datasheet. It often includes data proving that a product has been tested to work under specific conditions.
First you need to choose a secondary antibody that is against the host of your primary antibody. For example, if your primary antibody is a Mouse Anti-HSP70 antibody, then you need to choose a secondary that is made against mouse (for example, Goat Anti-Mouse). From there, you can choose which tag you would like to use to visualize your antibody.

Antibody Conjugates

When choosing the right fluorescent conjugate, you need to ask yourself a few questions:
  1. What filters/lasers are on your microscope?
First you need to know what filters and/or lasers you have on your microscope. They will determine what fluorescent proteins you will be able to excite and visualize.
  1. How many fluorophores do you plan to use on the one sample?
If you are using more than one fluorescent label in your sample, then you will need to carefully choose your other fluorescent dye(s) so as to minimize spectral overlap. You can do this by looking at the emission and excitation spectra for your fluorescent dyes, and choosing pairings that reduce how much overlap the emission and excitation spectra have with others dyes. If you are using a laser to excite your fluorophore, you only need to make sure that your laser (ie. 488 nm) is not exciting more than 2 dyes at the same time. If the laser is hitting the leading edge of your second fluorescent dye excitation spectra, then you may end up with a slight excitation of that dye. However if the filter that you are using to capture the emission spectra of that dye does not pick up any of the emission spectra of the second dye, then you will not see any spectral overlap while capturing your images.
The conjugate is bound to the antibody via a covalent bond, which is highly stable.
Conjugated antibodies can be labelled with anywhere from 1-10 tags depending on the antibody being conjugated and the tag being applied.
The conjugate tags bind to the antibody via free amine groups. It is most likely that the tag will bind in the Fc region of the antibody, as there are more free amine groups present in that area. However, it is possible that the tag may bind in the paratope of the antibody, thereby limiting binding of the antibody to the antigen. Although this is unlikely, it could affect the ability of the antibody to bind to the antigen in all applications. As we cannot control the binding of the conjugate to the antibody, there is no way to confirm or guarantee the location of the antibody tag.
All conjugated primary antibodies should be stored according to their product label.
Conjugated primary antibodies are stable for up to 18 months when stored at 4°C, and up to 2 years when stored at -20°C. Please see “How should a conjugated primary antibody be stored?” for further storage information.
In rare cases, the conjugate tag may bind in the paratope of the antibody, thereby limiting binding of the antibody to the antigen. Although this is unlikely, it could affect the ability of the antibody to bind to the antigen in all applications. As we cannot control the binding of the conjugate to the antibody, there is no way to confirm or guarantee the location of the antibody tag.

Proteins

The activity of all of our proteins is listed on the product datasheet and the product detail page on our website.
Endotoxin levels are not routinely tested for all proteins. We test endotoxin levels for most of our fibrillized, oligomeric, and monomeric protein constructs. Check the product detail page (PDP) and/or CoA for your protein of interest to determine if endotoxin level has been tested.

Small Molecules

All of our small molecules have solubility information listed on their datasheet. Please follow the specific instructions for selecting a solvent.
No, none of our small molecules are sterile. If you are reconstituting it in water or PBS, then you would need to perform sterile filtration. However if you are reconstituting it in an organic solvent (DMSO or ethanol), then sterile filtration is not needed as the solvent would kill any microorganisms.  

Kits

It takes a great deal of time and effort to correctly match pairs of antibodies for any immunoassay, therefore we do not provide details as to which antibodies were used to make our kits.
The pre-treatment buffer included in some of our ELISA kits is used to dissociate the target protein from other proteins it could be associated with.  
The sensitivity of an ELISA kit is calculated as follows: {2(StDev of blank) (Ave concentration of lowest standard above blank)} / (Aver. OD of lowest standard above blank- Aver. OD of blank).  Will need 10-20 samples for this calculation.
The limit of quantification is equal to the lowest concentration of protein used in the standard curve.  
Please contact our technical support team (1.250.294.9065 or techsupport@stressmarq.com). Depending on which kit you have purchased, there may be another component that can be used as a substitute. If not, we may also be able to send you a replacement component (at your expense).