Antibody Tools for Other Fields
RESEARCH AND ROUTINE CLINICAL TOOLS
As well as the antibodies Professor Groome made to inhibin and AMH, which gave Brookes academic and commercial success, he made many other antibodies on request to help other researchers.
Research Impact in fields other than Inhibin and AMH
As a result of his reputation for making antibodies Professor Groome was regularly approached by leading researchers from several fields of medicine to make novel antibodies to aid their research. All these projects led to publications which are in his reference list on google scholar and then the antibodies were made commercially available worldwide.
Breadth of impact
Neurology Research
Developed nine monoclonal antibodies to different regions of human myelin basic protein and one for human myelin proteolipid protein. These antibodies were made in collaboration with Dr Louse Cuzner of the National Hospital for Nervous diseases. Developed an antibody for phosphorylated myelin basic protein. These antibodies are used in research, particularly on demyelinating diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. All these have been extensively used for research.
Reproductive Medicine
Developed monoclonal antibodies to human dazl protein, aromatase, and oestrogen receptors beta 1, beta 2, and beta 5. This work was done in collaboration with Professor Phillipa Saunders of the MRC Reproductive Biology lab at Edinburgh University.Developed monoclonal antibodies for human oocyte (egg) proteins GDF9 and GDF9B, important for egg follicle development. This work was done in collaboration with Dr Olli Ritvos of the University of Helsinki.These antibodies are used in multiple publications and are commercially available. From 2003-2006 Professor Groome was given a contract from the New Zealand sheep industry (Agresearch) to develop monoclonal antibodies to sheep GDF9 and GDF9B. These proteins are involved in deciding why some breeds of sheep produce more twins.
Muscle Research
Developed a monoclonal antibody for the muscle protein myostatin. The antibody is used in publications and is commercially available. This antibody was developed in collaboration with Professor S. Bhasin of Charles Drew University, Los Angeles.
Diabetes Research
Developed a monoclonal antibody for islet cell amyloid protein, used in diabetes research and commercially available. This antibody was made in collaboration with Professor Robert Turner of the Diabetes laboratory in the Nuffield department of Medicine Oxford.
Human cancer pathology
Inhibin alpha subunit antibody (Clone R1) is very widely used in pathology for staining ovarian and other cancer tissues and is sold by Beckman’s subsidiary Leica. The datasheet is available in twenty languages.
SUMMARY
Some of these research antibodies have been selling for 30-40 years and used in hundreds, if not thousands, of research papers over the years. The cumulative impact over all this time must be significant and the Brookes antibodies are the enabling tools. Thus, as well as the more recent commercial success of the inhibin and AMH antibodies the Groome lab has been producing important antibodies for 40 years. The inhibin A antibodies are 34 years old and still important. Thus, the impact has been sustained, broadly based, and for AMH is still increasing.
Professor Groome had his own academic and commercial successes but also used his expertise to produce antibody tools for other researchers. Moreover, the royalty income to Brookes has funded a new generation of PhD students at Brookes in many fields other than his own.