A guide to selecting high-performing antibodies for VCP (UniProt ID: P55072) for use in western blot, immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence.

Valosin-containing protein (VCP) is a highly conserved and essential ATPase involved in many cellular processes like neuronal function, protein degradation, organelle maintenance, and stress response regulation. Understanding the specific mechanisms by which VCP plays in health and disease can provide novel insides in therapeutic targets, a process that would be facilitated by the availability of high-quality antibodies. Here we have characterized sixteen VCP commercial antibodies for western blot, immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence using a standardized experimental protocol based on comparing read-outs in knockout cell lines and isogenic parental controls. These studies are part of a larger, collaborative initiative seeking to address antibody reproducibility issues by characterizing commercially available antibodies for human proteins and publishing the results openly as a resource for the scientific community. While the use of antibodies and protocols vary between laboratories, we encourage readers to use this report as a guide to select the most appropriate antibodies for their specific needs.