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ANTIBODY PHAGE DISPLAY

Antibody-phage display is a powerful method for generating antibodies or antibody fragments to a target in vitro.  Libraries comprising millions of different antibody binding sites in the form of scFv or Fab expressed on bacteriophage coat protein are exposed to a target antigen, and over multiple rounds of selection, antigen-specific antibodies are identified.  An antibody fragment rather than a full IgG may often be desired and phage display is an ideal method for generating such a reagent.  It also enables monoclonal antibodies to be generated from a wide variety of different species.  Antibody selection in vitro also allows for the manipulation of target or binding conditions that would not normally be possible in vivo.  Scotia Biologics has many years of experience in library building and screening and offers a range of possibilities for our customers:   

Immunised libraries from: 

  • Sheep/Goat

  • Rabbit

  • Mouse

  • Dog

  • Llama

  • Golden Hamster

Immunogen:

  • Protein or peptide* provided by customer

  • Peptide designed by us

  • Scotia produced protein

  • Small molecule conjugated to a carrier protein    

  • Cells expressing target antigen on surface

  • Other antigen

    • *​peptides will need to be conjugated to a carrier protein.  Scotia can advise on this, or perform conjugation of appropriate peptides 

Types of Library:

  • scFV

  • Fab

    • Typically a phage screen will result in a number of monoclonal antibody fragments specific to the target molecule which can be fully characterised in whichever way is most suitable for each individual project.

    • Antibodies generated by Scotia Biologics can be expressed and purified at various scales and can be re-formatted or modified to meet customers’ needs.

HYBRIDOMA

  • High yield

  • Scalable production

  • Less expensive

  • Often high affinity

  • High specificity

Advantages

Disadvantages

  • Selection process restricted

  • Selection from limited pool of clones

  • Limited opportunity to repeat selection

  • Lengthy generation time

  • Toxic antigens not possible

  • Epitope targeting not practical

  • May require humanisation

  • Sequence information not automatically available

PHAGE DISPLAY

Advantages

  • Scalable production

  • Rapid generation (naïve libraries only)

  • Large pool of clones to select from

  • Repeat selection possible

  • Greater control over selection process

  • Greater diversity of positives achievable (immune libraries)

  • High affinity (immune libraries)

  • High specificity (immune libraries)

  • Can target specific epitopes

  • Sequence information generated

  • Amenable to post-selection development or modification

Disadvantages

  • Production yield variable

  • More expensive

  • May have lower affinity (naïve libraries)

  • May require humanisation (immune/animal libraries)

Typically a phage screen will result in a number of monoclonal antibody fragments specific to the target molecule which can be fully characterised in whichever way is most suitable to a particular project.


Antibodies generated by Scotia Biologics Ltd. can be expressed and purified to whatever scale desired by the customer or can be re-formatted or modified to meet customer’s needs.

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