Patent ID: 8012707

Claim:
A method of detecting or detecting and quantifying in a vertebrate sample MN protein or MN polypeptide comprising the steps of: (a) contacting said sample with at least one polyclonal antibody or fragment thereof which specifically binds to MN protein or to MN polypeptide; and (b) detecting or detecting and quantifying binding of said antibody or said antibody fragment in said sample; wherein said MN protein or MN polypeptide is encoded by a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of: (1) SEQ ID NO: 5; (2) nucleotide sequences that hybridize under stringent hybridization conditions of 50% formamide at 42° C. with a final wash of 0.1% SSPE and 0.1% SDS at 65° C. to complement of SEQ ID NO: 5′s coding region; and (3) polynucleotides that differ from SEQ ID NO: 5 or from the polynucleotide sequences of (b) due to the degeneracy of the genetic code.