WITH THE ADVENT OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY, TWO THINGS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY OBVIOUS: 1.

WITH THE ADVENT OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY, TWO THINGS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY OBVIOUS: 1. THESE MOLECULESWILL BE NEEDED IN KILOGRAM QUANTITIES FOR THE TREATMENT OF AVARIETY OF MALIGNANCIES. 2. ANTIBODIES OF HUMAN, AND NOT MURINE, ORIGIN WILL ULTIMATELY BE THE MOLECULES OF CHOICE. VERAX HAS BEEN DEVELOPING A NOVEL SYSTEM FOR THE MASS CULTURE OF MURINE HYBRIDOMA CELLS AND NOW WISHES TO EXTEND DEVELOPMENT TO STUDIES OF HUMAN HYBRIDOMA TECHNOLOGY. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST IS AN ANALYSIS OF THE FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING HUMAN HYBRIDOMA CELLS TO A CELL IMMOBILIZING MATRIXMATERIAL. OTHER GOALS ARE TO DEVELOP MINIMAL CULTURE MEDIUMFOR THE GROWTH OF THESE CELLS AND TO SELECT HIGH IMMUNO- GLOBULIN PRODUCING CLONES FROM LARGE POPULATIONS OF CELLS. WHILE IT MAY SEEM THAT THIS WORK WILL BE A SLIGHT MODIFICATION OF VERAX'S EXISTING TECHNOLOGY, SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WILL EXIST BETWEEN HUMAN/HUMAN AND MOUSE/MOUSE HYBRIDOMAS IN TERMS OF GROWTH AND PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND DEFINITION OF THESE DIFFERENCES WILL REQIURE CONSIDERABLE TIME AND ENERGY. MOREOVER, IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THE CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR EFFICIENT PRODUCTION OF HUMAN MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE REQUIRED FOR MOUSE MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES.