Is hybridoma production about to take a quantum leap forward?

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Two cultures derived from the same culture of a stable hybridoma clone were grown, one in NPD and the other in DI based medium supplemented with 3 percent FCS. Before seeding the cells were washed in serum-free media to verify the removal of any residual serum. During a period of two weeks the supernatants were collected as indicated and the cells were counted on the same day. The cultures were fed on the 4th and 10th day and medium was placed in the cultures on day 6. Although the cells in DI culture proliferated normally under these conditions, they failed to produce measurable quantities of antibody. Credit: Natalie Gavrilov-Yusim

Biopharmaceutical companies have started to evaluate the use of fully human monoclonal antibodies as a complementary or primary therapeutic agent against a variety of diseases. The most obvious advantage would be to bypass the interference from the patient's immune system that typically characterizes the use of chemerical or humanized antibodies. Due to the growing interest and the potential benefits, the efficient production of human monoclonal antibodies is a high priority. But any attempt to produce these by natural means encounters formidable obstacles, not only from an ethical standpoint but also from the difficulty inherent in generating human antibodies against human tissues.

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All News summaries for February 14, 2008