World's largest antibody search engine spins out from University of Bath

Antibody search engine CiteAb, founded by Dr Andrew Chalmers from the University of Bath in collaboration with web development company Storm Consultancy, has officially spun out from the university.

Accessible at www.citeab.com, CiteAb is the first global antibody search engine that combines free listing with impartial ranking by citations. The system 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.

“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,” said Dr Chalmers.

“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.”

Since its launch in 2013, CiteAb has become the largest antibody search engine and achieved a #1 ranking by Google. David Kelly, from Storm Consultancy, said the system “now lists over 1.5 million antibodies from 92 suppliers, with over 310,000 different citations”.

Graham Fisher, commercialisation manager for the University of Bath’s Enterprise and Knowledge Exploitation team, said CiteAb’s large amount of research data makes it a suitable service for both researchers and antibody manufacturers. He added, “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.”

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’s Research Development and Support Office to support growth and development prior to spinout.

“We are grateful to all those at the University of Bath who have helped with the development of CiteAb to date,” said Dr Chalmers, “especially the Enterprise and Knowledge Exploitation team, the Research, Development and Support Office, Legal Services and my own department, Biology & Biochemistry.”