Antibody data repositories and search engines

If you’re looking for an antibody that works for your experiment, you may be overwhelmed by options — or not know where to start looking to find one. Luckily, there are websites that can help: Antibody data repositories, which share validation data, and antibody search engines, which allow you to search many different antibody catalogs at the same time. 

If you're looking for an antibody, especially a validated antibody, we recommend using antibody search engines and antibody data repositories to find an antibody for your experiment. Search engines let you easily find and compare available antibodies from many vendors, while data repositories share validation and experimental data to help you decide if the antibody is a good fit for your experiment. They come in all sizes and specificities, from target-specific ones to application-specific ones to anything goes. We've shared the ones we're familiar with in Table 1. 

Table 1: Antibody data repositories and search engines

Website	Targets	Application	Purpose	Notes
Antibodypedia	Any	Any	Data repository
YCharOS	Human proteins	Immunoblot (western blot), IP, and IF.	Data repository
HuBMAP Consortium	Healthy human cells	Imaging (IHC, ICC, IF, etc.)	Data repository	From the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP)
Antibody Characterization Laboratory	Cancer	Any	Data repository	From the Frederick National Library for Cancer Research
Human Luekocyte Differentiation Antigen Workshops	Immune cells	Flow cytometry (potentially others)	Data repository	From the Human Cell Differentiation Molecules group
Addgene Data Hub	Any (see notes)	Any	Data repository	Only accepts data for antibodies in Addgene’s repository
IBEX Knowledge-Base	Any	IBEX multiplex tissue imaging	Data repository	See blog post
mAb3D Atlas	Mouse and human brain	IHC	Data repository	See blog post
Biomed Resource Watch	Any	Any	Search engine	May include validation data
CiteAb	Any	Any	Search engine	May include validation data
Biocompare	Any	Any	Search engine

Are we missing an antibody data repository or search engine that you use? Let us know in the comments so we can add it to the table! And if you're interested in joining discussions about improving antibody quality throughout research, consider checking out the Only Good Antibodies community on LinkedIn.