Agrisera 40 years

This year, Agrisera celebrates 40 years in the antibody business (1985-2025)! We are very proud and excited about this milestone, and have put together a collection of interesting stories and information to commemorate our anniversary. Check out Agrisera's history, exclusive interviews with leading scientist, and interesting facts about the production and validation of our catalog antibodies!

Page contents

Click on a heading to jump directly to that segment, or scroll down to check out the whole collection of exciting information.

• History

• Scientist Interviews

- Prof. Douglas Campbell, Mount Allison University, Canada
- Prof. Sabeeha Merchant, University of California, Berkeley, United States (coming soon)
- Prof. Junpeng Zhan, Huazhong Agricultural University, China (coming soon)
- More interviews to come!

• Agrisera catalog Q&As

History

Agrisera was established in 1985 by Greger Nordlund, as a small-scale producer of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for research. However, our roots date back to the 1970s, when the company's precursor specialized in producing key components for cancer drug development. In the 1980s, the focus shifted to antibody production, with the company exclusively manufacturing tailored antibodies for single end customers. By 1999/2000, Agrisera expanded our operations beyond custom antibody production, introducing a catalog of ready-made antibodies, primarily targeting plant and algal proteins, and available for any research lab to order.

Greger Nordlund and Agrisera personel in the 1980s.

A key milestone for Agrisera was the recruitment of Dr. Joanna Porankiewicz-Asplund, who played a leading role in steering the company's focus toward plant science, and our subsequent success on the antibody market. Joanna earned her PhD in plant biology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland in 1995, and later completed a postdoctoral position at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, before joining Agrisera in 1999. Today, she serves as our Technical Support Manager. She possesses a great passion and knowledge for all things plant-related, and is an expert on antibody production, as well as the troubleshooting of antibodies and immunoassays.

Joanna Porankiewicz-Asplund in a corner of her massive garden, September 2023.

In 2003, Agrisera launched our online antibody shop, and we have since grown to be a leading supplier of antibodies for plant and algal research. Through participation in conferences worldwide, and close collaboration with our many distributors, we have built valuable connections with our customers, and supplied antibodies to researchers in 85 countries. Many of the antibodies in Agrisera's catalog have been developed in partnership with research groups across the globe (read more under Scientist Interviews).

The Agrisera website in 2012.

In addition to offering a wide range of high-quality antibodies, we are deeply committed to supporting the plant science community through educational materials and workshops. In 2016, we partnered with SciGrafik and leading plant scientists to design, print, and distribute Educational Posters on topics such as Photosynthesis and Respiration, Rubisco, Plant Small RNAs, and Protein Extraction.

Agrisera was awarded the 2019 CiteAb award Plant Science Antibody Supplier of the Year, for having the most antibody citations in research related to plant science. On average, Agrisera antibodies are cited in over 800 scientific articles per year. Our goal is to provide our customers with everything they need – from fast delivery of high-quality antibodies, to support in achieving successful results.

Plant Science Antibody Supplier of the Year Award.

In 2020, Agrisera was acquired by Olink Proteomics, the company behind the Proximity Extension Assay (PEA) technology, a powerful protein biomarker research tool widely used in academic and clinical research, as well as drug development. In July 2024, Olink was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Agrisera timeline.

Scientist Interviews

In celebration of Agrisera’s 40th anniversary in 2025, we have conducted a series of short interviews with leading scientists, who have shared their knowledge and often supported the development of Agrisera's antibody collection for plant science. The aim is to honor their contributions to the field, as well as inspire others to venture into plant science, with the support of Agrisera antibodies.

Click on the researcher's names below to read a specific interview, or scroll down to read them all.

Prof. Douglas Campbell • Prof. Sabeeha Merchant (coming soon) • Prof. Junpeng Zhan (coming soon) • More interviews to come!

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Prof. Douglas Campbell

Dr. Douglas Campbell was a postdoctoral fellow at Umeå Plant Science Centre, in the group of Prof. Gunnar Öquist. He later held the position as Canada Research Chair in Phytoplankton Ecophysiology at Mount Allison University for over two decades, and is also Founder and Consulting Scientist at Environmental Proteomics NB. Agrisera has collaborated with Prof. Campbell over many years, including in the development of our collection of widely cited, so-called "global" antibodies.

- Please tell us about yourself and your research/institution.

I was a Canada Research Chair in Phytoplankton Ecophysiology at Mount Allison University, Canada, from 2001-2025. Mount Allison is a primarily undergraduate institution, but we assembled a strong cluster of phytoplankton researchers across the departments of Biology, Biochemistry, Environmental Sciences & Mathematics.

Around 2004, Dr. Christopher Brown (currently U. Calgary), Dr. Amanda Cockshutt (currently St. Frances Xavier University), and I worked with Agrisera colleagues to launch Environmental Proteomics NB, which designs, produces and validates immuno-reagents for detecting proteins of environmental importance, across taxonomic lineages and habitats.

- What motivated you to get into plant science?

My family had a background in agriculture and gardening, and I enjoyed working with plants. Around 1992 I transitioned to working primarily on cyanobacteria, because at the time molecular tools were more accessible for bacteria, than for plants. I then worked on most of the major lineages of eukaryotic phytoplankton, usually on questions related to photosynthesis and stress.

- How have you used (Agrisera) antibodies in your research?

Starting in 2002, we collaborated with Agrisera to design, test and launch lines of "global" antibodies, and accompanying quantitation standards. There is vast taxonomic and functional diversity across phytoplankton and plant groups, but most of their core metabolic pathways include very highly conserved proteins. So antibodies directed against conserved peptide regions can be used to detect and quantify major indicator proteins on an even basis, across a wide range of target organisms, and even in total protein extracted from mixed environmental samples. This allowed a single antibody + standard pair to be more widely used, covering the economic and personnel costs, while providing protein detection systems to groups who could not justify the costs of organism-specific antibodies. My own group has used antibodies produced through Agrisera in dozens of publications on dozens of organisms and systems.

- Any further comments?

Meeting Dr. Joanna Porankiewicz-Asplund, and then Greger Nordlund, of Agrisera was transformative to my career. Their confidence in funding the initial production of Global Antibodies led to a long and fruitful collaboration, with the resulting antibodies and standards now cited in thousands of diverse publications from around the world. I am grateful to Agrisera.

Links

• Prof. Douglas Campbell, Mount Allison University
• Environmental Proteomics
• Agrisera Global Antibody Collection

More interviews to come!

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Agrisera Catalog Q&As

• How was the Agrisera catalog created?

The Agrisera catalog launched in the beginning of the year 2000. As a custom antibody producer with 20 years of experience, and a lot of contacts with researchers from the most northern university in Sweden, Umeå University, the initiation of such collection was a natural next step. Agrisera's fruitful collaboration with Umeå Plant Science Centre has resulted in several antibodies being added to the catalog. Among these are e.g. antibodies to Light Harvesting Compex (LHC) proteins, UGPase and cFBPase, which are markers of the plant cell cytoplasm. The catalog was developed based on discussions with plant scientists, and analysis of relevant scientific literature. As Agrisera had already produced custom antibodies for researcher from all around the world, researchers from many different countries contributed with their ideas, or offered their antibodies to be included in the catalog, making them available globally. The first antibody in the Agrisera catalog was made to Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), which is a large protein used as a carrier for conjugations of peptides, to make them well exposed for the purpose of antibody production. We decided to number our products by the order and date of which they are released. Therefore, the first two digits will tell you in which year a the development of a given antibody was initiated. "AS01" means that the antibody was produced in 2001. An antibody with a product number stating with "AS24" thus means that it was produced very recently, which explains less antibody citations on this product's information sheet, thus far.

• Why does the Agrisera catalog not cover antibodies to all A. thaliana proteins?

Arabidopsis thaliana, from the mustard family (Brassicaceae) is a model organism in plant cell biology, and has around 35,000 proteins. The functions of many of these proteins are still not identified. Agrisera aims to provide antibodies to key proteins, involved in crucial metabolic pathways, including photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen and carbohydrate metabolism, as well as hormone biosynthesis and stress/defense pathways. Some proteins are studied by a small number of research groups, and a custom antibody will thus be a more appropriate solution in these cases. Our aim has always been to provide antibodies not only to one plant model species, but a much wider species range. This approach is much more cost-effective for antibody end users, as one antibody can be used on a wide range of samples, from many different species (Global antibodies). Another important aspect for our company is also to minimize the number of immunized animals. Over the last 25 years, while developing our off-the-shelf antibody collection, Agrisera has produced antibodies that cover most plant science model species, including dicots (e.g. tomato, potato, pea), monocots (e.g. barley, maize, rice), trees (poplar, pine), mosses (Physcomitrium patens), liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha), algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), as well as diatoms.

• How many species are covered by Agrisera antibodies?

Antibodies can be developed to full-length proteins, or to 7-30 amino acid long peptides. Depending on the homology of the linear sequence in the target protein corresponding to the antigen peptide, the resulting antibody will either detect the target protein in multiple species or not. This is often overlooked, and antibodies are purchased and used without this basic antigen sequence confirmation for the protein aimed to be detected. If the homology is poor (less than 70%), the antibody in question may not work for the species in question. Well-conserved proteins, like those involved in photosynthesis, will share quite a high sequence identity over multiple species, while other proteins, like transcription factors, will not. Therefore, one antibody developed to a certain amino acid sequence may work well in multiple species, while another may not. A good example of sequence conservation is seen in Agrisera Global Antibody collection, developed to highly conserved peptides, conserved in thousands of species, from higher plants to algae. One has to keep in mind that polyclonal antibodies developed to proteins, will most likely cover a wider species range, compared to antibodies developed to shorter amino acid sequences, found in less conserved parts of a protein. Before any antibody is purchased, one should always check if the sequence which it was developed to, is found in the target protein of your species, if the species of interest is not listed on the product information sheet. If a species from which you aim to detect a given protein is not listed on Agrisera product information sheet, contact us, and we will quickly check predicted reactivity of that antibody. There are over 1,300 different species covered by the antibodies in the Agrisera catalog. The filter function on our website allows for a quick search of antibodies reactive to a specific species, and the reactivity of each individual antibody is listed on its product page.

• Why are most Agrisera antibodies antigen affinity purified?

Affinity purified antibodies are obtained though affinity chromatography where a column with the antigen (protein or peptide) used to elicit the antibody in question, is used. This results in a specific antibody fraction, with >95% purity. This antibody format is the most suitable for the detection of proteins of low expression, as in immunolocalization, antibody labelling and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP).

• How do you identify which antibodies are to be produced?

The antibody development process is executed in very close collaboration with the research community. Agrisera attends at least 10 conferences each year, and supports around 30 meetings all around the world. This gives us great opportunities to interact with researchers from many different fields of plant science, whose inputs are invaluable to us. Over the last 40 years, we have expanded our plant and algal research network to span all across the globe, with which we discuss future antibody developments and needs on a daily basis. Each suggestion is subjected to an internal validation process, developed and finetuned over decades, before an antibody production is initiated. We are working according to ISO 9001 standards, which means that our decision making is fact-based and well documented. Having produced antibodies for 40 years has taught us a lot regarding antigen design, a crucial part of a successful antibody production process. Each target is carefully evaluated by peptide chemists, as each protein has unique properties that need to be considered.

• How do you deal with batch-to-batch variation?

Most antibodies in the Agrisera catalog are polyclonal, which means that they consist of a pool of antibodies to various epitopes on the target protein. Such antibodies are versatile in many different techniques, depending on where the binding to the target protein occurs. With each new dose of antigen during immunization program, the immune response will be modified accordingly. This can result in differences in antibody behaviour, depending on at which point in time the antibody was collected. Therefore, all serum aliquots from a given production, that has passed quality control by indirect ELISA, are pooled. The whole collected material should never be subjected to purification at the same time, as antibodies may lose reactivity following the purification process. We carefully optimize and monitor this step by indirect ELISA quality control. As antibodies bind to various epitopes, their antigen binding domain will be different depending on the antibody. This may also influence their final stability. Antibodies may lose reactivity after one, 10 or 40 years. This is not possible to predict or test, so we rely on our extensive experience and knowledge, as well as on the testing of Agrisera antibodies in various techniques, in collaboration with research laboratories all around the world.

• What are your criteria to make an antibody available for the research community?

The reactivity of an antibody to the recombinant protein or peptide it was made to in an ELISA assay, does not provide any information about how reactive the antibody will be when working with endogenous samples. Effectiveness of an antibody to recognize its target protein in a tissue will depend on many factors, including target protein abundance, localization in the cellular compartment, organ, developmental stage, extraction conditions (Western blot) or fixation method (immunolocalization). The target protein may be folded differently on a PVDF or nitrocellulose membrane, compared to in the tissue, following a fixation protocol. Therefore, each technique requires separate validation. As a plethora of samples and mutants is required for the validation of Agrisera antibodies, we conduct this process in close collaboration with researchers worldwide. Agrisera antibodies are validated in at least two independent laboratories before being released, and the validation data includes specific mutants (knockout or knockdown), cellular fractions, or various developmental stages. Our validation process employs a combination of direct and indirect validation methods.

• Why are Agrisera antibodies provided in lyophilized format?

Agrisera has chosen to provide antibodies in lyophilized format due to several benefits, including:

- Longer product shelf-life,
- No risk of antibody degradation in the unlikely event of a delayed shipment,
- Environmentally-friendly shipping, with no need for dry ice (the production of which is expensive and energy-consuming).

This method of delivering antibodies has successfully been used by Agrisera for the last 25 years. The preserved activity of all lyophilized antibodies is confirmed by reconstitution of the product and testing it in a specific technique, such as Western blot or immunolocalization. Upon receiving an antibody from Agrisera, which is lyophilized, it can be stored in -20°C and reconstituted before use. Specific instructions regarding reconstitution volume and addition of glycerol are provided on each product information sheet.

• In how many publications are Agrisera antibodies cited in so far?

Agrisera antibodies can be found in thousands of scientific publications, with a publication record since 2000. Agrisera antibodies are cited in over 800 scientific publications per year, and the most relevant publications for each antibody are listed on the respective product information sheet. Agrisera was awarded with the 2019 CiteAb award Plant Science Antibody Supplier of the Year, due to our antibodies having the most extensive publication record in plant science.

Here's to another 40 years!