« Back
Home /
Partner: dendritics IHölzel Diagnostika

Dendritics

DENDRITICS was started in 2005 by former members of SCHERING PLOUGH Laboratory for Immunological Research (LIR) in Dardilly, France.

The initial drive for DENDRITICS was inspired by their will to supply the scientific community with the large collection of monoclonal antibodies they had developed at LIR. Most of the antibodies presented in this catalogue directly result from their participation in gene discovery programs and functional studies. Consequently, they strongly believe that DENDRITICS has a competitive advantage to ensure high product quality and expert understanding of the underlying science.

From their long experience at LIR, the team members of DENDRITICS have gathered complementary scientific and technological knowledge in different areas of immunology. The initial focus of LIR was in the biology of B lymphocytes, elaboration of human monoclonal antibodies, and in cytokine discovery (IL-3, IL-4, IL-7, IL-10, IL-17, GM-CSF) together with their colleagues of DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, California.

Their interest in cytokines led to the finding that human dendritic cells (DCs) could be generated in vitro from CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors cultured in the presence of GM-CSF and TNF-alpha. The period from 1992 to 2005 saw the specialization of LIR in DC biology and was fuelled by a large-scale effort to discover and study the function of genes specifically expressed by these cells.

This program led to a number of findings that contributed in particular to understanding the heterogeneity of DCs, the pathways regulating DC migration, the function of C-type lectin receptors in DCs and the activity of Toll-like receptors in DCs. Many novel genes were discovered through screening of cDNA libraries or through monoclonal antibodies raised against DCs.

This collective effort and the motivation of DENDRITICS team members to stay at the forefront of science now makes it possible to supply a broad range of monoclonal antibodies to DC research laboratories worldwide.

The vision of DENDRITICS will furthermore generate future innovating reagents to meet upcoming needs of immunologists. Long-standing collaborations with the clinical community will be an important asset to drive the development of diagnostic tools and therapeutic entities.