Science Fundamentals: Antigens and Antibodies

After my series on Scientific Literacy (please go check that out), I wanted to do a series on the fundamentals of science. Hopefully these quick explanations of science terms and processes are helpful, and are part of the groundwork for your scientific literacy. If there are topics that you would like me to cover, please let me know in the comments. I have a PhD in microbiology/biochemistry, but I am happy to do some digging into topics that I don’t deal with everyday.

Previous topics in the Science Fundamentals series are: DNA, PCR, and Agarose Gel Electrophoresis.

This Science Fundamental is on Antigens. It is part of an on-going series about the difference between the COVID PCR test, and the rapid antigen tests.

So what is an antigen?

Antigen- a shortened version of a term from the 19th century. It was originally anything that generated an antibody, or an antibody generator. It was compressed to antigen somewhere along the way, but we now we mean anything that can bind to an antibody. It is a slight difference, but it allows for more items to be classified as antigens without having to prove that it can generate an antibody.

But what is an antibody? It is a protein that is used by the immune system to find and stop invading bacteria, fungi, and viruses. They are…