Many Research Antibodies Fail to Work as Advertised
A Montreal team found nearly two-thirds of antibodies tested against an ALS-linked protein did not detect it.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Alzheimer’s
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Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital tested commercial antibodies against C9orf72, a protein linked to ALS, and found that nearly two-thirds failed to detect it. The findings, published in the journal eLife, raise concerns about the reliability of widely used laboratory tools.
Why it matters
Antibodies that do not perform as advertised can lead to inaccurate conclusions and dubious studies. With some eight million antibodies marketed by roughly 300 companies, the problem may affect a large share of research using these tools.
Testing found nearly two-thirds of antibodies claiming to detect C9orf72 did not detect it, across a commercial market of roughly eight million antibodies from about 300 companies. About 20 per cent of the antibodies tested have since been withdrawn from commercial catalogs, and the extent of impact on existing research remains unassessed.
The players
Carl Laflamme
Lead researcher on the study, based at the University of Ottawa, who helped establish the ALS-Reproducible Antibody Platform.
Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital
The Montreal institution where the research was conducted, known as the Neuro, a leading neurology research and clinical center.
The details
The team tested commercial antibodies against the gold standard to verify performance, and the main antibody suppliers agreed to provide their products for testing and validation. The team also established the ALS-Reproducible Antibody Platform, a free, publicly accessible database of test results.
Timeline
The findings were published in the journal eLife on November 4, 2026.
Health Landscape
The ALS-Reproducible Antibody Platform creates a public record of antibody performance for ALS research, a field where unreliable reagents have slowed progress. The finding that around 100 proteins are linked to Parkinson's disease suggests the antibody reliability problem may extend well beyond ALS.
Researchers and clinicians relying on published neurological studies may need to check whether the antibodies used were verified before trusting their conclusions. Patients are unlikely to see direct changes, but more reliable research tools could eventually speed the development of treatments.
The takeaway
Verifying the tools behind research is as important as the results they produce. Readers following neurological studies should look for whether key reagents were independently validated.
Further reading
For more on the research tools behind neurodegenerative studies, see our Alzheimer’s coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by CityNews Montreal.
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