Question:

I recently purchased some of your DryCoat Assay Stabilizer (Cat# AG066) to produce precoated ELISA plates. I am precoating with primary antibody and adding my own blocker (5% dry milk) to the stabilizer before drying.

Do you have a recommended protocol for drying plates intended for long-term storage of 6-12 months? We have the ability to dessicate, vacuum-dry, or freeze-dry the plates. Which method do you think will give the best results?

Resolution:

For practical (production) reasons, desiccation is usually best. What we usually do is air-dry the plates overnight and package in a vapor-barrier pouch with a 2 gram indicating desiccant pack. We then leave the plates out another 24 hours prior to refrigeration - this continues the desiccation process inside the sealed pouch before cold storage.

Depending on the solid phase antibody, 80% activity dating regularly exceeds 6 years as determined via accelerated stability testing.