The use of phage display in neurobiology

Phage display is a new technique that is used extensively in molecular biology to study protein-protein interaction, receptor- and antibody-binding sites, to produce monoclonal antibodies against diverse antigens, some of which are too well conserved for the production of monoclonal antibodies by traditional means, and to improve or modify the affinity of proteins for their binding partners. This technique could have many applications in neurobiology. This review describes the background to the technique, and illustrates a number of possible uses in neurobiology, ranging from the production of antibodies to non-immunogenic proteins and to those that are available as cloned DNA sequences only, to the detailed study of receptor-ligand interaction using either ligands, their receptors or neutralizing antibodies.