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Generating antibodies in high throughput  (Embargo: 29 November 2007, 00.01 GMT)

A consistent source of monoclonal antibodies to the wealth of newly discovered genes in the human and mouse genomes would be of huge value to the research community. Now research published in the open access journal Genome Biology demonstrates the potential for large-scale high-throughput generation and validation of monoclonal antibodies, which could find uses in many applications from research to diagnostics.

John McCafferty and colleagues in the ‘ATLAS of protein expression’ group at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK, generated antibodies on an unprecedented scale by selecting from a phage display library containing over 10 billion human antibodies.

The group selected, screened and sequenced over 38,000 recombinant antibodies to 292 antigens, yielding over 7,200 unique clones. They went on to characterise 4,400 antibodies by testing their specificity and sensitivity and analysing their sequence in detail. To achieve this they developed in parallel, methods for antigen target production using bacterial and mammalian expression systems.

Project leader John McCafferty, now at the University of Cambridge, says “This work illustrates the potential for proposed multi-centered, international efforts for genome-wide generation of antibodies. Such large-scale efforts will not only provide a wealth of reagents for research and diagnostics, but could also drive the introduction of a more consistent quality-control framework allowing users to more easily identify the most appropriate binders for their needs, whatever the source”.

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Article:

Application of phage display to high throughput antibody generation and characterisation

Darren J Schofield, Anthony R Pope, Veronica Clementel, Jenny Buckell, Susan D J Chapple, Kay F Clarke, Jennie S Conquer, Anna M Crofts, Sandra RE Crowther, Michael R Dyson, Gillian Flack, Gareth J Griffin, Yvette Hooks, William J Howat, Anja Kolb-Kokocinski, Susan Kunze, Cecile D Martin, Gareth L Maslen, Joanne N Mitchell, Maureen O’Sullivan, Rajika L Perera, Wendy Roake, S Paul Shadbolt, Karen J Vincent, Anthony Warford, Wendy E Wilson, Jane Xie, Joyce L Young, and John McCafferty

Genome Biology (in press)

http://genomebiology.com

Please quote the journal in any story you write, and link to the article if you are writing for the web.

The Antibody Atlas Database can be found online at: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/atlasdb/a>

Antibody clones described in the paper are available from Geneservice Ltd. (http://www.geneservice.co.uk/a>)

Email: press@biomedcentral.com

Please quote the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's Open Access policy.

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Genome Biology is published by BioMed Central, (http://www.biomedcentral.com), an independent online publishing house committed to providing open access to peer-reviewed biological and medical research. This commitment is based on the view that immediate free access to research and the ability to freely archive and reuse published information is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science.

BioMed Central currently publishes over 160 journals across biology and medicine. In addition to open-access original research. BioMed Central also publishes reviews, commentaries and other non-original-research content. Depending on the policies of the individual journal, this content may be open access or provided only to subscribers.