High throughput production of mouse monoclonal antibodies using antigen microarrays

Federico De Masi1, Pieranna Chiarella, Heike Wilhelm

  • 1Biochemical Instrumentation Programme, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.

Proteomics
|October 29, 2005
PubMed

Recent advances in proteomics research underscore the increasing need for high-affinity monoclonal antibodies, which are still generated with lengthy, low-throughput antibody production techniques. Here we present a semi-automated, high-throughput method of hybridoma generation and identification. Monoclonal antibodies were raised to different targets in single batch runs of 6-10 wk using multiplexed immunisations, automated fusion and cell-culture, and a novel antigen-coated microarray-screening assay. In a large-scale experiment, where eight mice were immunized with ten antigens each, we generated monoclonal antibodies against 68 of the targets (85%), within 6 wk of the primary immunization.