The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (or DSHB) is a National Resource established by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to bank and distribute at cost hybridomas and cell products to the general scientific community. The DSHB has been self-funded since 1996.
The mission of the DSHB is four-fold:
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- Keep product prices low to facilitate research
- Serve as a repository to relieve scientist of the time and expense of distributing hybridomas and the monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) they produce
- Assure the scientific community that MAbs with limited demand remain available
- Maintain the highest product quality and provide prompt customer service and technical assistance
The DSHB is directed by David R. Soll at the University of Iowa. There are currently 1500 hybridomas in the DSHB collection. They have obtained hybridoma collections from a variety of individuals and institutions including the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the National Cancer Institute, and they eagerly await new collections. The DSHB has begun developing complex monoclonal antibody microarrays for specific targets. Recently the bank tagged several of their most popular monoclonals with fluorescent proteins for distribution. Hybridomas and cell products are available for a fee. First time customers must agree to the DSHB terms of usage that products will be used for research purposes only, and that they cannot be commercialized or distributed to a third party. Researchers also agree to acknowledge both the DSHB and the contributing investigator in publications that benefit from the use of DSHB products and provide the DSHB copies or citations of all publications. Popular targets that the DSHB provides products for include:
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- Drosophila antigens
- Cell markers
- Dictyostelium antigens
- Cytoskeletal elements
- Transcription factors
- Cluster Determinant (CD) antigens
- Muscular Dystrophy-associated proteins
- NCI – Cancer targets
- Neurodevelopment markers
- Cardiac development proteins
- Extracellular matrix proteins
- Cell adhesion receptors
- Cell signaling
- Epitope tags
- Stem cells
- Skeletal muscle
- Enzymes
- Human
- C. elegans
- Xenopus
- Nucleus
- Microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi)
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