An international group of scientists, with substantial involvement of the Technical University of Braunschweig, Department of Professor Stefan Dübel, and the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Aled Edwards, could this first in a systematic study of its kind to demonstrate alternative production methods. The study results are published in the journal Nature Methods.

So far the production of antibodies, key reagents for cell biological and biomedical research which can also be used as pharmaceuticals, was largely dependent on animals. In particular, the antibody phage display technology for which Prof. Dübel was co-inventor was very helpful here. Instead using animals to produce new antibodies in all steps the researchers apply bacteria in vitro. In the context of the international consortium of Canadian, U.S., Sweden, Australia and England the new antibodies were tested and the methods were validated in detail by systematic analysis of an application on a large scale.

Contact:
Technical University of Braunschweig
Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel
Spielmannstr. 7
38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Phone: +49-531-391-5731
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

More information (in German): http://www.idw-online.de/

Study on the quality of the antibodies:

Karen Colwill, protein binding Renewable Working Group & Susanne Gräslund
"A roadmap to generate renewable protein binders to the human proteome"
Advance Online Publication (AOP) on Nature's website on 15 May Methods
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1607