Microfluidic selection of monoclonal antibodies

描述（由申请人提供）：近20年前，部分作为对利用基因组学研究的回应，NIH投资于基因阵列技术的发展。这些“基因芯片”使我们对发生在细胞和组织中的潜在生物过程的理解取得了重大突破。这些加深的理解已经导致了新的疗法，影响了我们现在成功治疗和诊断主要疾病的方式，包括癌症、糖尿病和阿尔茨海默氏症。但对于科学家们真正渴望了解的东西，基因一直是一个糟糕的替代品；细胞和组织内部和组织之间的蛋白质组成和相互作用。在这个建议中，我们描述了一种基于微流体的方法来获得抗体和亲和试剂，可以开发用于制作抗体阵列。我们希望开发一种廉价的高通量方法来选择和鉴定针对未修饰和修饰的蛋白质和肽抗原的抗体。STTR的成功完成和我们未来的目标将对新的治疗靶点、新的免疫疗法、预后和诊断生物标志物的发展产生重大的直接影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly 20 years ago, partially as a response to leveraging the genomics research the NIH invested in the development of gene array technologies. These `gene chips' enabled great breakthroughs in our understanding of the underlying biological processes that occur in cells and tissues. These increased understandings have already led to new therapies that affect the way we now successfully treat and diagnose major diseases, including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. But genes have always been a poor surrogate for what scientists are really eager to understand; the protein make-up and interactions occurring both within and between cells and tissues. In this proposal we describe a microfluidics-based method for obtaining antibodies and affinity-reagents that can be developed for making antibody arrays. We want to develop an inexpensive high-throughput means of selecting and identifying antibodies to both unmodified and modified protein and peptide antigens. The successful completion of this STTR and our future goals will have significant direct impact on the development of new therapeutic targets, new immunotherapeutics, and prognostics and diagnostic biomarkers.