Spring Bioscience (Spring), a leading developer of rabbit monoclonal antibodies, engineered for IHC and other applications in tissue-based cancer research and a member of the Roche Group, has launched PD-L1 (SP142) rabbit monoclonal immunohistochemistry (IHC) antibody. This new PD-L1 clone was developed for Roche/Genentech's anti-PD-L1 (MPDL3280A) immunotherapy development programme and included in research of various tumour types.

As pharmaceutical companies continue to research and develop cancer drugs that target the immune system, measuring the amount of PD-L1 protein expressed on tumour cells and tumour-infiltrating immune cells may help assess the efficacy and durability of investigational drugs that inhibit the binding of the PD-L1 protein.

Internal comparison studies performed at Spring demonstrated that the PD-L1 (SP142) antibody outperformed other commercially available PD-L1 antibodies. "As with all IHC antibodies developed by Spring, the SP142 antibody will deliver the high quality and accuracy that clinical researchers need to confidently assess PD-L1 status in tissue samples," said Michael Rivers, GM, Spring Biosience.

"The development of the PD-L1 (SP142) antibody was designed to be very sensitive and specific. As researchers strive to understand the clinical relevance of PD-L1 expression, this clone may offer a superior ability to stain and analyze both tumour and immune cells," said Doug Ward, VP and Lifecycle Leader, Ventana Companion Diagnostics. "Ventana and Spring are committed to delivering gold standard biomarker detection solutions for companion diagnostic tests."

Spring Bioscience is known across the research industry for its quality development practices and for delivering a consistent supply of highly-specific antibodies. SP142 meets the company's high standards as a valuable tool for assessing PD-L1 expression in many different tumour types.

Recommended staining protocols are available for manual, semi-automated and VENTANA Discovery platforms for decreased assay development times.