Screening of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells

Screening of antigen-specific antibody-producing cells is a key step for obtaining antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies. In murine system, hybridoma between B-lymphocytes and myeloma cells is used to screen and produce antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies. In human system, good hybridoma-producing system is not available. Instead, transformation of B-lymphocytes with Epstein-Barr viruses is used to obtain antibody-secreting cell lines. Furthermore, phage-display system using molecular biology is recently used to obtain antigen-specific human monoclonal antibodies. Here, we describe the new method for screening antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells at single-cell levels using microwell-array chips. The system can be applied to screen antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells from any animal species.