Announcement by the Office of the Vice President for Research:
Two UConn faculty members have developed research tools that the University recently licensed to EMD Millipore, a global Life Sciences tools and reagents supplier, announced the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Dr. Linda Shapiro, director of the Center for Vascular Biology and associate professor of cell biology at UConn Health, developed a monoclonal antibody that will be of value as a research reagent in the study of inflammation in response to injury. Her antibody, anti-Aminopeptidase N/CD13 Antibody, went through extensive in-house validation by EMD Millipore prior to antibody reagent going to market.
Dr. Angel L. de Blas, professor of physiology and neurobiology, developed two antibodies that have also been tested and launched as products by EMD Millipore. Dr. de Blas developed Anti-BIG2 Antibody, which can be used in Western blotting, immunocytochemistry, and immunoprecipitation to study cellular trafficking of membrane proteins, and he also developed Anti-Septin 11 Antibody, which can be used in Western blotting and immunohistochemistry to study the organization of the cytoskeleton in various cell types and dendritic branching in neurons.
While research tools may not command the same acclaim as blockbuster drugs, they can enable groundbreaking discoveries. These types of research accomplishments make very important contributions to scientific breakthroughs.
The work of Drs. Shapiro and de Blas brings recognition to the University, and offers the potential to benefit researchers at universities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies worldwide.