AniMAb: Establishing a monoclonal antibody platform to interrogate animal antibody responses to inform rational design of veterinary vaccines

许多动物[和人类]感染很难通过接种疫苗来控制，因为它们是由病毒、细菌和寄生虫引起的，它们能够通过不断变异来超越免疫系统。通常情况下，身体产生的抗体和杀伤细胞用来抵抗感染，目标是这些微生物的突变区域。然而，我们怀疑微生物也拥有更多可以被疫苗靶向的保守区域，因此，如果我们能确定这些保守区域，我们就能制造出一种疫苗，可以对抗许多不同的菌株。在这个项目中，我们将开发一种系统，使我们能够从动物身上分离出单克隆抗体，首先是奶牛。有了这项技术，我们就能分析出奶牛对疫苗或自然感染产生的抗体反应。然后，我们可以筛选这些抗体，找到那些能够识别并杀死不同微生物菌株的抗体，例如病毒。然后我们就可以找出这些抗体针对的是微生物的哪一部分，并利用这些信息来制造更好的疫苗。重要的是，我们可以扩展这项技术，为所有动物物种的疫苗设计提供信息。

Many animal [and human] infections are difficult to control through vaccination because they are caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites that are able to out-run the immune system by constantly mutating. All-too-often, the antibody and killer cells that the body makes to fight off infection target these mutating regions of the microbe. However, we suspect that microbes also possess much more conserved regions that could be targeted by vaccines, and therefore if we could identify these conserved regions we would be able to make a vaccine that would work against lots of different strains. In this project, we will develop a system that will allow us to isolate monoclonal antibodies from animals, in the first instance cows. Having this technology will allow us to dissect out the antibody response that cows make to vaccines or to natural infection. We can then screen these antibodies to find those that are able to recognise and kill different strains of a microbe, e.g. a virus. We can then work out what part of the microbe these antibodies target and use this information to make better vaccines. Importantly, we can expand this technology to inform vaccine design for all species of animals.