[4] The company was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Milner with co-founders professor Tony Kouzarides and David Cleevely, with the idea of making it easier for research scientists to buy antibodies across the web.

[5] Milner was a postdoctoral researcher studying the newly discovered breast cancer protein BRCA2 in Kouzarides' Cambridge University laboratory.

On 28 August 2023, Danaher Corporation announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Abcam for approximately $5.7 billion at $24 per share in cash.

Ascent Scientific was a company based in Bristol, United Kingdom that provided high-quality biochemical products that modulate the function of proteins for use in life science research.

Epitomics was a privately held biotech company in Burlingame, California (US) and Hangzhou (China) that focused on the development, production, and distribution of rabbit monoclonal antibodies for biomedical research and diagnostic applications.

A year later, on 6 January 2020, Abcam announces the successful acquisition of Expedeon's Proteomics and Immunology business, which includes Innova and TGR Biosciences.