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The OGA–YCharOS partnership gives manufacturers independent, standardised, open antibody characterisation. Products that perform well are visible in our database and tools, and to the researchers, funders and publishers who use them.
Antibody quality is becoming a research integrity issue. Funders are starting to require validation budgets and evidence in grant applications. Publishers are moving towards complete antibody reporting at submission. Researchers are starting to choose products on independent characterisation data. Manufacturers who register RRIDs, take part in independent testing, and make their quality data visible will be the ones chosen as buying decisions move onto evidence.
Our Delphi study of 32 international experts, manufacturer representatives among them, set out actions across the research ecosystem to improve antibody validation. Funders are starting to require validation budgets and plans in grant applications. Publishers are moving towards complete antibody reporting at submission. Institutions are embedding training and policy expectations. As these take hold, researchers will choose antibodies on independent characterisation evidence.
Products with strong independent evidence will be chosen. Products without it will face more scrutiny. The OGA–YCharOS partnership is how you generate that evidence, independently and in the open.
Antibody performance data affects commercial reputation and what people buy. We know that, which is why manufacturers are partners rather than subjects. You review your data before it is released, and you shape the shared protocols at monthly consortium meetings. That is what keeps partners engaged while the science stays independent.
We do not rate antibodies or name a single "best" product. We identify antibodies that work for specific applications under our standardised protocols, and we say every time that performance depends on the assay and the sample. The data is open, and you can use all of your own testing data in your marketing.
Assign Research Resource Identifiers to your products as you make them. An RRID lets researchers identify and cite a specific antibody, lets performance be tracked across the literature, and lets journals screen submissions automatically.
The YCharOS consortium characterises antibodies independently, using knockout controls, across Western blot, immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry. Four academic laboratories (Leicester, McGill, Cornell, British Columbia) test products side by side, using the community protocols published in Nature Protocols.
The NC3Rs & OGA Antibody Champions programme places trained early-career researchers across UK institutions. They promote evidence-based buying decisions and good validation experiments. These are the people who decide which antibody a lab uses, and they are trained to read independent characterisation data.
The OGA–YCharOS pipeline can identify reagents good enough for diagnostic assays. The Leicester team works with clinical cohort studies and proteomics groups to prove them in patient samples, and to find markers that characterise cellular heterogeneity reproducibly.
Dr Harvinder Virk, University of Leicester
Characterisation partnerships, Champions sponsorship, clinical translation, and general enquiries about working with the OGA–YCharOS programme.
Dr Anita Bandrowski, SciCrunch
Registering antibody products with the Antibody Registry, bulk RRID assignment, and integration with the RRID ecosystem.