tHE uNIVERSITY OF bATH
AUTOANTIBODY DIAGNOSTICS AND DISCOVERY
Get in touch with us at serology@bath.ac.uk
IN A CLINICAL SETTING, WHEN IS AUTOANTIBODY TESTING BY IMMUNOPRECIPITATION USEFUL?
1 . Detection of autoantibodies missed by routine panels:
- Useful when clinical suspicion is high or diagnosis is confirmed but standard tests are negative.
- Some autoantibodies are not included in current commercial assays e.g. anti-eIF2B, anti-eIF3, anti-RuvBL1/2 or may yield false negatives e.g. anti-OJ and anti-TIF1y
2. Clarifying unexpected positive results:
- Helps confirm or refute false positives when an autoantibody result does not match clinical features—potentially avoiding unnecessary follow-up.
- In clinical and research settings, immunoprecipitation can be combined with mass spectrometry to identify novel autoantibodies.
(Contact us for a quote and timeframe if this service is required).
