Antibody discovery for neglected tropical and emerging infectious diseases

单克隆抗体（mAb）疗法现在常规用作癌症疗法和免疫抑制剂。今天获得许可的许多mAb都是所谓的“重磅炸弹”疗法，十大最畅销的治疗药物中大多数都是mAb。直到最近，用于感染性疾病的mAb在很大程度上落后于用于癌症和免疫治疗的mAb。然而，对治疗的需求增加，以及最近的新冠肺炎疫情的刺激，导致在优化制造和降低生产成本方面的大量投资和进步。因此，投资和开发用于传染病的mAb的需求越来越大，包括新出现的传染病和主要影响中低收入国家的传染病。利用LSTM和兰开斯特大学的独特资源，该项目将专注于开发一系列被忽视的热带疾病的mAb，例如蛇咬伤和最近出现的传染病，包括痘病毒（例如，天花）。

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies are now routinely used as cancer therapies and immunosuppressants. Many mAbs licensed today are so-called 'blockbuster' therapies, with the majority of the Top 10 best-selling therapeutic drugs being mAbs. Until recently, mAbs for infectious diseases have largely lagged behind those for cancer and immunotherapies. However, the increase in demand for therapies, and spurred on by the recent covid pandemic, has led to substantial investments and advances in optimised manufacturing and reducing production costs. As such, there is increasing appetite for investing and developing mAbs for infectious diseases, including emerging infectious diseases and those which predominantly affect LMICs. Using LSTM's and Lancaster University's unique resources, this project will be focused on the development of mAbs for a range of neglected tropical diseases, such as snakebite envenoming and recently emerging infectious diseases including pox viruses (for example, mpox).