Antibody engineering--IBC's Tenth International Conference. 6-9 December 1999, La Jolla, CA, USA

This meeting covered emergent antibody technologies through preclinical and clinical development of antibodies to the latest clinical data with antibody drugs. On the technology front, human antibody phage libraries have increased in size and quality, and have been combined with high-throughput screening methods. Such phage libraries have become powerful tools for the generation of antibody therapeutics and may also prove useful in the identification of new therapeutic targets. Indeed, four high affinity human antibodies from phage libraries are currently in clinical trials. Transgenic mice containing human immunoglobulin genes have also emerged as a route to high affinity human antibodies, including two that have progressed into the clinic. Molecular evolution of scFv fragments to increase their stability has led to improved localization to tumors in animal models and to their enhanced performance as intrabodies. In clinical trials, significant efficacy with minimal or acceptable toxicities were reported for the chimeric Fab fragment, ReoPro (abciximab; Centocor Inc), in coronary artery disease; the humanized anti-HER2 antibody, Herceptin (trastuzumab; Genentech Inc), in metastatic breast cancer; and, the humanized anti-IgE antibody, E25 (Genentech Inc), in asthma and allergic rhinitis.