Monoclonal Antibody Discovery
Monoclonal antibodies are a key component of basic science research as well as cancer diagnostics, therapeutics and immunotherapies. Our semi-automated hybridoma discovery service offers time- and cost-competitive custom monoclonal antibody discovery to Fred Hutch investigators as well as external users from academia and industry.
Schedule With Us
To schedule antibody discovery services with the Antibody Technology shared resource, or to get more information about how we can work with you, fill out the inquiry form on our Rates and Scheduling page.
Each antibody discovery campaign is unique, and successful projects are tailored to the specific needs of the investigator. Our experts will work with you in designing a strategy to identify the desired antibody. Our strategy includes antigen design and identification of the optimal immunization program and screening protocols.
We use various host species (mouse, rat, hamster), strains and adjuvants to generate novel antibodies. We select specific animals from a campaign cohort to advance for hybridoma generation based on their immunogenic responce to the desired antigen.
We isolate antibody-producing B cells from high-titer animals and fuse them with myeloma cells to produce hybridoma cell lines capable of antibody production and long-term propagation. Our electrofusion protocol is nearly 20 times more efficient than traditional PEG fusions and routinely yields 100,000 viable hybridomas per fusion.
We plate hybridoma cells in semisolid methyl cellulose selection media containing fluorescently labeled target antigens. As colonies grow, target-specific antibodies are identified, picked, robotically transferred to liquid cultures for secondary screening, and ultimately archived.
We use a combination of custom antigen-coupled bead arrays along with traditional cell-based flow cytometry to screen for monolonal antibodies. This assay offers a signal-to-noise ratio that is 10 to 100 times more sensitive than traditional ELISA-based detection. We have validated the platform for modified peptide targets, small molecules, recombinant proteins and cell-surface receptors.