In addition, there is now a company, ProZyme, which sells kits to perform PE or
APC conjugations. With the kit you get everything you need to conjugate 1 mg of
your antibody--including columns, buffers, and the activated phycobiliprotein.
And, it only takes about 2 hours--about the same amount of time as it takes to
do a simple FITC conjugation. We have used these kits in-house with outstanding
results--I highly recommend them to any laboratory that is not prepared to
isolate, activate, and crosslink their own phycobiliprotein. Visit ProZyme's
web site at "http://www.prozyme.com/phycobiliproteins/". The 1 mg kits cost
about $300, which makes them a much more economical choice than custom
conjugation (or even buying the pre-made conjugates, if you intend to perform
more than a hundred stains!).
mr