ProteoGenix develops a tool to select the most appropriate antibody generation technique

January 20, 2019

STRASBOURG, FRANCE - Jan 21, 2019 - How to choose between polyclonal antibody production, hybridoma development and antibody phage display? Which is the most appropriate antibody generation technique according to your needs? ProteoGenix, a leading biotech company, has developed an online quizz to help you make your choice.

Polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) designate a wide variety of heterogeneous antibodies binding several epitopes of a same antigen. They are obtained by immunizing an animal against the antigen of interest. The production process is fast and affordable and leads to high-affinity antibodies, able to detect low expression antigens and even denatured proteins. However, because of their low specificity, polyclonal antibodies can induce cross-reactions and background noise. This makes them inappropriate for quantitative measurements. Moreover, polyclonal antibodies are often inadequate for standardized protocols, as the production process leads to an important batch to batch variability and relies on animal size and lifespan.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) derive from a single B cell type. The antibodies obtained target a specific epitope of the same antigen, resulting in a great specificity and a homogeneous, possibly high scale production. MAbs can be engineered in new formats such as fragments, bispecific antibodies or antibody-drug conjugates. Two main techniques are used for monoclonal antibody generation:

  • Hybridoma technology was developed in 1975 by Kohler and Milstein. The mAbs are obtained through the fusion of selected immunized mouse B spleen cells with myeloma cells. This results in the generation of immortal B cells producing highly specific antibodies of interest. The counterparts of this process are the generation time, as it takes on average between 6 and 8 months, and often requires further humanization process for therapeutic purposes.
  • The phage display antibody production method was developed by Smith in 1985. It consists in the insertion of a gene sequence coding for a specific antibody into the DNA sequence of a filamentous bacteriophage. This phage is therefore expected to infect Escherichia coli and to use its inner replication system in order to display new phages. Once a naïve library of antibodies is constituted, the detection and production of a large amount of the antibody of interest through phage display takes only a few weeks. This method also allows the generation of fully human antibodies. As a counterpart, it is costly and the binders may provide a lower affinity than those resulting from the hybridoma technology.

As each of these methods have many specific characteristics, advantages and drawbacks, ProteoGenix, a leading biotech company, has developed a free entertaining quizz to guide you in the selection of the best appropriate antibody production method for your project. Only 10 short questions and less than 2 minutes are needed to determine the most adapted antibody production method between phage display biopanning, hybridoma development and polyclonal antibody production. Based on your answers, we provide you a custom, clear-cut and detailed answer corresponding to your aims, budget allowed, time required, animal use prescriptions, etc. Try it now !