Large antibody display libraries for isolation of high-affinity antibodies

Libraries of displayed antibodies have been increasingly used to select or screen antibodies. It is generally well recognized that large libraries provide high probability of finding a given antibody. In this review, the factors that limit the sizes of current in vivo and ribosome-based in vitro display libraries to be around 10(11) members are first discussed. An analysis resulting in a quantitative correlation between the library size and the antibody affinity is then presented. This analysis underscores the importance of large libraries in not only increasing the probability of finding a given antibody, but also enhancing the quality of a given antibody. Recent advances in preparing state-of-the-art large display libraries are then reviewed. Finally, potential improvements to current library technologies to generate libraries as large as 10(12) and their rationales are explored in length.