Antibody Engineering

The exquisite binding specificity of antibodies has made them valuable tools from the laboratory to the clinic. Since the description of the murine hybridoma technology by Köhler and Milstein in 1975, a phenomenal number of mo- clonal antibodies have been generated against a diverse array of targets. Some of these have become indispensable reagents in biomedical research, while others were developed for novel therapeutic applications. The attractiveness of an- bodies in this regard is obvious―high target specificity, adaptability to a wide range of disease states, and the potential ability to direct the host’s immune s- tem for a therapeutic response. The initial excitement in finding Paul Ehrlich’s “magic bullet,” however, was met with widespread disappointment when it was demonstrated that murine antibodies frequently elicit the human anti-murine an- body (HAMA) response, thus rendering them ineffective and potentially unsafe in humans. Despite this setback, advances in recombinant DNA techniques over the last 15–20 years have empowered the engineering of recombinant antibodies with desired characteristics, including properties to avoid HAMA. The ability to p- duce bulk quantities of recombinant proteins from bacterial fermentation also fueled the design of numerous creative antibody constructs. To date, the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 10 recombinant antibodies for human use, and hundreds more are in the development pipeline. The recent explosion in genomic and proteomic information appears ready to deliver many more disease targets amenable to antibody-based therapy.

With 10 recent FDA approvals of therapeutic antibody drugs and hundreds more in the biotechnology pipeline, it is clear that engineered antibodies will play a major role in treating human diseases in the 21st century. In Antibody Engineering: Methods and Protocols, leading researchers and clinicians present a core collection of cutting-edge techniques for the generation, expression, optimization, and characterization of recombinant antibodies. Readily reproducible protocols for lead generation range from the cloning of human immunoglobulin genes to the generation of human recombinant antibodies by humanization approaches, molecular display technologies, and transgenic animals. The techniques for antibody expression and optimization utilize not only bacterial and mammalian cell cultures, but also insect cell cultures and transgenic plants. State-of-the-art technologies are described for the characterization of antigen-binding affinity and specificity with novel applications in radioimmunotargeting, cancer immunotherapy, drug abuse, and proteomics. Each fully tested protocol is described in step-by-step detail and includes background material, equipment and reagent lists, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding pitfalls.
Comprehensive and up-to-date, Antibody Engineering: Methods and Protocols provides both laboratory and clinical investigators with a diverse array of the fundamental techniques upon which new and imaginative drug technologies can be successfully developed.