Antibody search engine spins out from University of Bath in UK

Published: 12-Feb-2014

CiteAb lists more than 1.5 million antibodies from 92 suppliers


Antibody search engine CiteAb, which has developed an international user base since its launch in March 2013, has been spun out from the University of Bath in the UK.

CiteAb was founded in 2013 by Andrew Chalmers from the University’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, in collaboration with Bath-based web development company Storm Consultancy, run by University of Bath graduates David Kelly and Adam Pope.

CiteAb claims to be the first global antibody search engine that combines free listing with impartial ranking by citations. It is now said to be the largest antibody search engine in a US$2bn industry.

CiteAb allows scientists to find antibodies for use in their research, and to see academic citations associated with those antibodies, proving that they will do the job required.

We rank antibodies by academic citations as these are the best guide to whether an antibody is likely to work

Chalmers said: 'One of the biggest problems for a researcher is being sure that the antibody they’re about to spend hundreds of pounds on is going to work. They can waste time and money buying the wrong one.

'CiteAb solves this problem. We rank antibodies by academic citations as these are the best guide to whether an antibody is likely to work in the laboratory – citations are independent and easily verifiable, and no-one can pay to be the top hit.'

The search engine lists more than 1.5 million antibodies from 92 suppliers, with over 310,000 different citations.

CiteAb has received funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s ‘Knowledge Transfer Champion Fund’ and from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s ‘Innovation Fund’. It also secured funds from the University of Bath’s Research Development and Support Office to support growth and development prior to the spin-out.

Graham Fisher, Commercialisation Manager for the University of Bath’s Enterprise and Knowledge Exploitation team, said: 'CiteAb provides a top notch service to researchers, and also deals with huge amounts of research data which is extremely useful to antibody manufacturers. The team at CiteAb are currently exploring ways to use this data which will ensure the long-term success of this project as a commercial enterprise.'

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