Pre-commercial development of single cell monoclonal antibody selection

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This proposal will put in place a custom instrument and assay for the high-throughput pre-selection of cells, providing a key functionality required for the commercialization of a new microfluidic single cell process for the generation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This new process offers critical advantages of 1) the ability to generate mAbs from any species including humans, 2) ultra-rapid selection of high-value mAbs, 3) greatly improved throughput, and 4) a major reduction in the cost. Specifically we will build a custom robotic instrument that interfaces with microfluidic culture arrays to enable the high-throughput enrichment of the top 0.1% of cells producing the highest affinity antibodies from a population of 100,000 cells. This capability will provide a major value inflection point for our technology by establishing the requisite throughput to identify rare high-affinity antibodies from any species, making it a powerful approach to the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Based on these results and our current capabilities, we will be well positioned to raise venture funds for the establishment of a new UBC start-up company, with a "best-in-class" technology in the high-growth area of monoclonal antibody therapeutics, within the next 12 to 18 months.