Antibody Libraries

The adaptive nature of the immune system means that every individual has the capability of producing antibody to the millions of antigens that could be encountered throughout their lifetime. We have created libraries of antibody genes collected from cells donated by healthy individuals.

Antibody libraries

The number of different antibodies is increased by an order of magnitude by mixing the genes that code for the variable region of an antibody to give further combinations. MedImmune Cambridge, therefore, can virtually guarantee that there are antibodies in its libraries that will bind to any given target molecule.

By inserting the antibody genes into phage (Phage Display) or converting them into mRNA, (Ribosome Display) we have created phage and ribosome antibody libraries that contain over 100 billion distinct antibodies.

These libraries represent the humoral immune repertoire equivalent in size to approximately ten human beings and they have the appearance of a clear fluid, one drop of which represents many copies.