LIFESCI 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Antivenom, Amine, Immunoglobulin Light Chain
Document Summary
Ls 3 - lecture #4 - antibody production & enzyme specificity. This course will talk a good amount about antibodies. Antibodies are often created by injecting a sub-lethal dose of venom into a large animal (such as a horse), which will produce antibodies that can be collected for use in humans. Antibodies can be generated for any foreign substance that enters the body. Antibodies can also be referred to as immunoglobulin. Antibodies consist of two identical heavy chains and two identical light chains. The site of antigen-antibody binding occurs at the end of the variable region (not the constant region) of the antibody. In terms of tools used in molecular biology, antibodies can be used to help harvest and/or identify particular proteins. Evolutionarily conserved amino acids are highly critical for protein function. These conserved amino acids are often part of the active sites of enzymes (where the enzyme binds to its substrate)
