Stefan Dübel
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
Title: In vitro evolution to adapt antibodies to technical requirements of biosensors
Biography
Biography: Stefan Dübel
Abstract
The development of biosensors using antibodies for detection of an analyte is frequently hampered by the limited choice of sensor molecules, if antibodies were generated by classical animal immunization. For some antigens or desired fine specificity, no antibodies could be obtained at all. Here, recombinant methods based on a complete in vitro selection pipeline, typically phage display, offer several new opportunities. Antibodies with particular, pre-designed biochemical properties can be selected from the start, as the biochemical milieu during the in vitro selection can be exactly controlled. Further, properties of existing antibodies can be changed or improved in various directions to adapt the sensor molecule to the requirements of a particular biosensor system. We present examples of successful generation of antibodies binding to extremely toxic molecules of antibodies specifically selected to detect very small differences in the antigen structure, matching sandwich pairs, improvement of affinity or stability, and the change of the kinetic binding properties, and successful applications of such recombinant designer antibodies on biosensors.