If your research project needs to study interactions between specific proteins or modified forms of proteins and a genomic DNA region, for example, to determine whether a transcription factor interacts with a candidate target gene, or monitor the presence of histones with post-translational modifications at specific genomic locations, Creative BioMart provides our customers with state-of-art ChIP-based services to ensure your research needs are met.

What Is ChIP?

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is an antibody-based, large-scale technique used to enrich and capture target protein-DNA complexes. Following the ChIP, protein-DNA interactions can be analyzed using multiple downstream applications, including ChIP-Seq, ChIP-qPCR and ChIP-on-chip. Standard ChIP procedure includes cross-linking protein-DNA complexes in cells, extracting and shearing chromatin, preclearing to reduce non-specific immunoprecipitation, followed by immunoprecipitation with specific antibodies, elution of the protein-DNA complexes from resin, reverse the covalent cross-links, and then the DNA fragments are purified and analyzed by downstream applications.

Figure 1. Overview of ChIP strategies

ChIP-based Services at Creative BioMart

ChIP-Seq Service
ChIP-Seq is a genomics technique widely used to analyze protein-DNA interactions. It combines ChIP and massively parallel DNA sequencing to identify binding sites for DNA-interacting proteins and can be used to accurately map global binding sites for any protein of interest. Compared to other ChIP downstream applications, ChIP-Seq provides higher resolution and more accurate and rich information.

ChIP-qPCR Service
ChIP in combination with quantitative PCR can be utilized to detect the interaction between specific transcription factor/histone modification and known genomic binding sites. If the site is not known, qPCR primers can also be designed for potential regulatory regions. ChIP-qPCR is advantageous in studies that focus on specific genes and potential regulatory regions under different experimental conditions as the cost of performing real-time PCR is minimal.

ChIP-on-chip
Using ChIP coupled with microarray’s high-throughput properties, DNA sites that interact with specific transcription factors or DNA binding proteins can be analyzed at one time, linked to the representative gene clusters, to further understand gene expression and regulation. This combined approach allows researchers to rapidly identify protein-DNA interactions in a genome-wide manner.

ChIP Antibody Validation
The success of ChIP and its downstream applications depends to a large extent on the quality of the antibody. Creative BioMart specializes in producing high-quality antibodies of histone, histone modifications, transcription factors and other DNA binding proteins, and validating these antibodies for ChIP. We can also verify your own internally developed antibodies for ChIP.

With a professional technical team and advanced technology platforms, Creative BioMart can provide high-quality ChIP-based services, ensuring the objectives are met and accelerate your epigenetic research. Cooperating with Creative BioMart, you will find everything you need under one roof. Please contact us now and start your project!

Reference
1. Carey M F.; et al. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. 2009, 2009(9): pdb. prot5279.