ProSci Antibodies Power Breakthrough Brain Mapping Technology

 How custom antibody development enabled next-generation neuron tracing in a landmark study from Harvard How custom antibody development enabled next-generation neuron tracing in a landmark study from Harvard and MIT

Introduction

When the world’s leading neuroscience teams set out to map the brain with nanoscale precision, they faced a simple but critical obstacle: no existing antibodies could do the job.

So they turned to ProSci.

In a groundbreaking preprint on bioRxiv—“Combinatorial protein barcodes enable self-correcting neuron tracing with nanoscale molecular context”—researchers from the Church and Boyden labs unveiled PRISM, a new platform that combines protein barcodes, tissue expansion, and iterative immunostaining to reconstruct neurons with extraordinary accuracy.

To make it possible, they needed custom antibodies that didn’t yet exist.

ProSci created them.

Enabling Discovery When No Antibody Exists

The PRISM method uses engineered “barcode” proteins to label individual neurons, allowing computers to trace entire networks with molecular context. Each barcode must be detectable with an antibody that’s:

Highly specific to its target

Stable through multiple rounds of staining and stripping

Free from cross-reactivity with dozens of other epitopes

https://www.prosci-inc.com/blog/prosci-antibodies-power-breakthrough-brain-mapping-technology/