Nanobodies are tiny, recombinantly produced antigen binding VHH fragments, derived from the Alpaca heavy chain IgG antibody (HCAb).
![Ig Forms]()
Pictured Bottom Row: The VHH domain represents the absolute smallest antibody fragment necessary to specifically bind an antigen with exceptionally high affinity.
When compared to traditional monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies, nanobodies are:
- Smaller
- More consistent
- Higher affinity
- Easier to use
Nanobodies are offered in a variety of formats, including Nano-Traps, Nano-Boosters, and Chromobodies® .
ChromoTek nanobodies have many superior performance characteristics:
| Characteristic |
Monoclonal Antibody |
Poylclonal Antibody |
Nanobody |
| Size |
~150 kDa unconjugated (IgG) |
~150 kDa unconjugated (IgG) |
Only ~15 kDa unconjugated |
| Binding Affinity |
Medium to High (nM - μM Kd values) |
Low to Medium (μM Kd values) |
Consistently High (pM - nM Kd values) |
| Lot-to-Lot Consistency |
High - Hybridoma cell line production can suffer from "drift" |
Very Low - Produced in live animals - significant variance between lots and bleeds |
Very High - Recombinantly produced from clonal DNA - same product every time!
|
How can I use a nanobody?
In short, nearly any way you please!
Nanobodies come in a variety of formats. They are raised against a fairly diverse range of antigens, and are thus highly versatile tools, capable of being employed in a variety of different situations.
The most common uses for a nanobody are experiments that you are likely already familiar with, like immunoprecipitation, or fluorescence microscopy.
There are also a handful of applications where use of a nanobody is feasible, but use of a conventional antibody would be impractical or impossible.
ChromoTek nanobodies are highly versatile reagents:
| Application |
ChromoTek |
Advantages |
| Immunoprecipitation |
Nano-Traps |
Faster, cleaner, more consistent IPs without heavy & light chain contamination |
| Live Cell Imaging |
Chromobodies® |
Immunolabel intracellular structures in live cells simply and efficiently |
| Fluorescent Protein Enhancement |
Nano-Boosters |
Reactivate dead fluorescent proteins, or enhance the brightness & photostability of GFP or RFP |
What is a Nano-Trap?
Nano-Traps are nanobodies that have been conjugated to agarose or magnetic beads to facilitate cleaner, faster, simpler immunoprecipitations.
Nano-Traps are available in a variety of formats, and target a variety of common tags, including Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), Red Fluorescent protein (RFP), Myc, GST, & MBP.
Nano-Traps are also available for DNA methyltransferase (Dnmt-1), p53, and PARP-1 for immunoprecipitation of untagged, endogenously expressed protein
![Ig Forms]()
Nano-Traps allow you to perform IP experiments with exceptionally high yield, and without contamination from antibody heavy or light chains.
In fact, the GFP-Trap® (pictured above) has already been cited in more than 400 peer reviewed publications. Try one today, and find out why they are so popular!
Nano-Traps significantly improve conventional IP protocols.
- Faster (roughly half the time required for an antibody IP)
- Cleaner (no heavy or light chain antibody contamination)
- More consistent (recombinant reagents for the same interaction every time)
- Higher yield (picomolar to nanomolar affinity constants for GFP and RFP-traps®)
![Three forms of Nano-Traps]()
In order to facilitate the most versatility in IP methodology, all nano-traps come conjugated to agarose beads, ferromagnetic beads, or agarose/magnetic beads.
Researchers in the US and Western Europe get next-business day delivery on GFP and RFP-traps purchased at antibodies-online
Nano-Traps available at antibodies-online:
What is a Nano-Booster?
Nano-Boosters use the power of the nanobody to enhance, modulate, or reactivate weak fluorescent signal from a fluorescent protein.
A Nano-Booster is composed of a nanobody, targeting GFP or RFP, and conjugated to an ultra-bright ATTO dye.
![Enhanced GFP signal with the ATTO-488 GFP-booster]()
The natural fluorescent properties of GFP are enhanced by the supebright ATTO-488 dye coupled to ABIN509419 the GFP-Booster®.
ATTO dyes were specifically chosen for use with Nano-Booster due to their exceptionally bright signal, best-in-class photostability, and narrow Stokes-Shift.
Next-generation imaging techniques like super-resolution microscopy require bright, photostable fluorescent probes.
Nano-Boosters can provide the "signal-boost" required to make fluorescent proteins like GFP bright and stable for super resolution microscopy.
antibodies-online offers the following Nano-Boosters:
What is a Chromobody®?
Chromobodies® are novel tools for live-cell intracellular fluorescent labeling.
Chromobodies® are fusion proteins that contain both a nanobody targeting your protein of interest, and a bright, photostable fluorescent protein.
Because nanobodies are produced from recombinant DNA, you can generate Chromobodies® directly, right inside the cell you want to label. No fussing with messy, frustrating, or time consuming fixation or labeling protocols!
Simply start with the appropriate Chromobody® plasmid, transfect it into a compatible cell line, and utilize persistent, intracellular immunolabeling in live cells!
![Actin Chromobody Staining Example]()
Chromobodies® use your own cells to produce the nanobodies that will label your protein of interest.
No fixation or additional staining steps are necessary. Finally, live-cell intracellular immunolabeling is a viable strategy!
Chromobody® plasmids are available for the following targets:
