Affinity vs avidity made clear: affinity is the strength of one binding site, avidity is the total strength of all sites. Why IgM's high avidity beats its low affinity, and how avi...
IgE, the allergy and antiparasite antibody: its structure, why it is the rarest antibody yet triggers the strongest reactions, how it arms mast cells via FcεRI, and its role in hel...
Isotype vs allotype vs idiotype made simple: the three kinds of antigenic determinant on an antibody, sorted by location (class, allele, and antigen-binding site), with examples an...
IgA, the antibody of mucosal immunity: serum monomer vs secretory dimer, the J chain and secretory component, how it crosses into secretions, and why IgA protects the newborn gut....
Antibody structure explained: heavy and light chains, Fab and Fc regions, variable and constant domains, the hinge, and how the five classes (IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, IgD) differ. For m...
How monoclonal antibodies are made by hybridoma technology, why HAT medium selects the right cells, the four types from mouse to fully human, and their diagnostic and therapeutic u...
The effector functions of antibodies: neutralization, opsonization for phagocytosis, complement activation, ADCC, and transcytosis, and which antibody class does which. For micro a...
IgG, the most abundant antibody: its four subclasses (IgG1 to IgG4) and how they differ in complement activation, opsonization, and placental transfer, plus IgG's key clinical role...
IgM, the first antibody in a response and the best at complement and agglutination: its pentamer structure, 10 binding sites, why it means acute infection, and why it cannot cross...
