Dear Immunologists,
I understand the concept of affinity and avidity but am not sure where
the differences lie. Is the affinity of an Ab merely a function of its
overall avidity? Does a 'good' Ab have a high affinity and avidity by
definition? If an unpurified polyclonal Ab gives a poor signal (for
example on a Western), will afffinity purification give a 'better' Ab by
concentrating high affinity Ab's in the polyclonal at the expense of all
the other junk i.e. although affinity purification will increase your
signal to noise ratio, will it increase your capacity to detect a
signal?
Any help and/or references would be much appreciated.
Martin
mjcann at med.cornell.edu
