Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Submitting antibodies to binding arbitration

Nature Chemical Biology volume 4, pages 326–329 (2008)Cite this article

For the last 30 years, the production of affinity reagents and particularly antibodies for research and therapeutic applications has been dominated by hybridoma and polyclonal technologies, while more modern, reliable and inexpensive approaches have lagged. Here we discuss why this is the case and how a cultural shift in the biomedical research community could bring the new technologies for creating antibodies and other tailor-designed binding proteins into the mainstream, with the potential for myriad new applications in research and medicine.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Production of monoclonal antibodies by the hybridoma method.

Ann Thomson

Figure 2: Production of antibodies by phage display.

Ann Thomson

References

  1. Kohler, G. & Milstein, C. Nature 256, 495–497 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Smith, G.P. & Petrenko, V.A. Chem. Rev. 97, 391–410 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bradbury, A.R. & Marks, J.D. J. Immunol. Methods 290, 29–49 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hoogenboom, H.R. Nat. Biotechnol. 23, 1105–1116 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Wittrup, K.D. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 12, 395–399 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lipovsek, D. & Pluckthun, A. J. Immunol. Methods 290, 51–67 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ye, J.D. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 82–87 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Bradbury, A. et al. Trends Biotechnol. 21, 312–317 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fellouse, F.A. et al. J. Mol. Biol. 373, 924–940 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Sidhu, S.S. & Fellouse, F.A. Nat. Chem. Biol. 2, 682–688 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Binz, H.K. & Pluckthun, A. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 16, 459–469 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Hosse, R.J., Rothe, A. & Power, B.E. Protein Sci. 15, 14–27 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Mathonet, P. & Fastrez, J. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 14, 505–511 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Sidhu, S.S., Lowman, H.B., Cunningham, B.C. & Wells, J.A. Methods Enzymol. 328, 333–363 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Uchiyama, F., Tanaka, Y., Minari, Y. & Tokui, N. J. Biosci. Bioeng. 99, 448–456 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hudson, P.J. & Souriau, C. Nat. Med. 9, 129–134 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lal, S.P., Christopherson, R.I. & dos Remedios, C.G. Drug Discov. Today 7, S143–S149 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Birney, E. et al. Nature 447, 799–816 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Koch, C.M. et al. Genome Res. 17, 691–707 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephen W. Michnick is in the Département de Biochimie and the Robert Cedergren Centre, Bioinformatique and Genomics, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale centre-ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada. stephen.michnick@umontreal.ca,

    Stephen W Michnick

  2. Sachdev S. Sidhu is in the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. sachdev.sidhu@utoronto.ca,

    Sachdev S Sidhu

Authors
  1. Stephen W Michnick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sachdev S Sidhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Michnick, S., Sidhu, S. Submitting antibodies to binding arbitration. Nat Chem Biol 4, 326–329 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0608-326

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0608-326

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing