Sartorius #2 eBook - 2019 - 23

Importance of mAb Discovery and Development in Immunotherapy

Conventional approaches employ ELISAs to screen
compounds. This generally only permits one test to be
carried out at a time, points out Dr. Duensing, adding that
IntelliCyt's iQue technology permits multiple tests to be
carried out at the same time (Figure 1).
"For example, clients use a cell line transfected to express
the target. But at same time, the untransfected cell line can
be used as a negative control. If the screen is taking place
with 10,000 hybridoma clones, then you only have to run
it once, rather than twice-this is a huge cost and effort
savings," asserts Dr. Duensing.
In addition to building controls into their primary screens,
many customers are using the product's multiplexing
capabilities to screen for cross-reactivity with other species
(for example, mouse, rat, monkey, etc.). "This can help
when designing downstream experiments in whole animals,
because it is already known if the antibody recognizes other
species beyond human," explains Dr. Duensing.
Coding for Therapeutic Antibodies
Treating a patient with antibodies does not always mean
that proteins must be manufactured. A promising alternative
is using mRNA that codes for an antibody of interest.
"Getting an antibody into humans does not always mean
developing and producing the antibody outside the body.
Injections of messenger RNA into humans can be used
to co-opt a patient's own cells to make cancer-targeting
antibodies. Alternatively, the same approach can be used to
induce an antibody response for a vaccine," says Sebastian
Kreiter, M.D., director, Immune Therapy Development Center,
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GENengnews.com

Figure 1. Example of an antibody screen performed using the Intellicyt iQue platform with target and control cells
simultaneously. The top row shows wells with cells that react with the target; the bottom row includes information on the
specificity of the interaction. Actual data from a screen performed by Modiquest Research. Image courtesy of IntellCyt

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Sartorius #2 eBook - 2019

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