Monoclonal Antibody Opportunity

The city of Xi’an in China is famous world-wide as the home of the “Terracotta Army”; over seven thousand life-size figurines that had been “guarding” the tomb of the first Chinese Emperor for more than 2200 years before their discovery in 1974.

Xi’an is also the home of Professor Bo-Quan Jin from the Fourth Military Medical University (FMMU), an academic affiliate of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research under the James R. Kerr Program (http://www.licr.org/04_affil/kerr.htm). Two years ago, Dr Xin Lu, an LICR Member at the London-St Mary’s Branch met with Professor Jin to form a collaborative agreement under which the FMMU produces monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for LICR investigators. As of February 2003, just one year into the collaboration, over 100 mAbs have been produced, or are in the Xi’an pipeline, following requests from scientists in the London St Mary’s, London UC, Melbourne, and New York Branches of the LICR.

The arrangement between the FMMU and the LICR is a fantastic opportunity for LICR investigators to obtain resources for their research. Dr Anne Ridley, an LICR Member at the London UC Branch was one of the first to obtain mAbs through the FMMU collaborative. “The best thing about the FMMU service is that it is free to LICR groups – you of course have to justify why you need the monoclonal, and provide adequate evidence that there is not a similar antibody available on the market already. The quality of the RhoE antibodies we received was excellent, and we are really happy that we now have an endless supply of high-quality antibodies. They sent us several to try, and have sent us more ascites on request, which is great. The replenishment of supplies was quick and efficient too.”

Obtaining a mAb for your research

The process for obtaining a mAb is initiated by the LICR investigator filling in the online (intranet) form at https://www2.licr.org/Monoclonals/index.html, which is checked to ensure, amongst other things, that there is no duplication of requests, and that the antibody has not already been generated. When the antigen has been accepted for production, the investigator sends the antigen (purified recombinant protein or peptide) to Dr Lu in London, who (very kindly) deals with the necessary legalities and form-filling, and then forwards the antigens to the FMMU laboratories. Remember that for the best results in the fastest time, the antigen must be of good quality, and in the diluent requested (refer to the LICR Monoclonals section on the intranet for details).

Upon receipt of the antigen, the FMMU scientists will raise several clones, and screen those clones against the antigen (using Western blotting or ELISA). The supernatants from several positive clones are then sent directly to the LICR investigator. Please be aware that there are three steps in mAb generation (immunizing the mice and screening the sera, fusion and screening of hybridomas, and hybridoma cloning), and each can take eight to ten weeks. You should plan for a possible turn-around time of 30 weeks to be certain (commercial groups also offer turn-around times of 20 to 30 weeks). The LICR investigator is then responsible for screening the supernatants (e.g. using Western Blotting), and selecting the best clone. When the investigator has chosen the best clone, the FMMU team will send the hybridoma of that clone to the investigator, and also to the central repository at the London-St Mary’s Branch.

Downstream data obtained from the use of the mAb (see below) must be provided, by the investigator, to the Office of Information Technology in Lausanne (using the form on the LICR Monoclonals section of the LICR intranet), which collates and stores all the information pertaining to the mAb in a secure section of the LICR Intranet. The secure area is accessible to the investigator/s, the Office of Intellectual Property, and the Monoclonals Program co-ordinators, Drs. Paul Farrell and Xin Lu (London-St Mary’s Branch), and the James R. Kerr Program Director, Dr. Andrew Simpson (New York Office).

Before you excitedly start collecting every recombinant protein in your freezer to ship to Xi’an, there are a couple of important points to remember:

  1. The agreement between the FMMU and the LICR is first and foremost an academic collaboration, not a service arrangement. Therefore, should the mAb obtained from the FMMU form the central, or a major, part of a publication, the FMMU senior scientist (Professor B. Jin) should be included as a co-author.
  2. The LICR investigator, by sending a request for an antibody to FMMU, agrees to screen the supernatants, maintain the hybridoma, and perform all downstream purification of, and experimentation with, the mAb. Put simply - you have to select and look after your own hybridoma, and do your own experiments with the mAb!
  3. This is vital. The LICR investigator must provide the screening and downstream data to the Office of Information Technology via the intranet. Feeding back data on the clones and mAbs is important for FMMU’s development and optimization procedures, and will help with quality control and trouble-shooting (should any problems arise).

LICR investigators who wish to obtain mAbs through the FMMU collaboration should first check the LICR intranet (at https://www2.licr.org/Monoclonals/index.html), and then contact Dr Xin Lu at the London St Mary’s Branch (x.lu@ic.ac.uk) if you have any further questions.



Purchasing a mAb from a commercial source could cost US$7,000 to well over US$10,000.
Obtaining a mAb from the FMMU costs you nothing but your cooperation in returning data to a central (secure) repository.

 


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