B Cell Repertoire Molecular Platform for Antibody Drug Discovery

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Specific Aim of this Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) SBIR Phase I grant proposal is to show the feasibility of a high-throughput molecular technology for discovery of monoclonal antibody (mAb) drugs for oncology from human B cell repertoires. Drug companies spend up to 5 billion to produce a single FDA-approved monoclonal antibody, or mAb (DiMasi and Grabowski, 2007; Nelson et al., 2010). High mAb development cost is at least partly due to the high failure rate of candidates. A technology that improves mAb selection by just 10% before entering clinical development could save the drug industry ~ 400 million per FDA- approved mAb. Immune systems are test tubes that constantly select for antibodies withstrong potential as drugs. GigaLink will be a research service for drug discovery programs that leverages these antibody selection test tubes. In mouse systems, our technology could eventually replace B cell immortalization. In human systems, our techn