Pre-commercial development of single cell monoclonal antibody selection

该提案将为高通量细胞预选提供定制仪器和分析，为产生单克隆抗体（mab）的新型微流控单细胞工艺的商业化提供关键功能。这种新工艺具有以下关键优势：1)能够从包括人类在内的任何物种中生成单克隆抗体；2)超快速选择高价值单克隆抗体；3)大大提高了产量；4)大大降低了成本。具体来说，我们将建立一个定制的机器人仪器，与微流体培养阵列接口，使高通量富集前0.1%的细胞，从10万个细胞中产生最高亲和力的抗体。这种能力将为我们的技术提供一个主要的价值拐点，通过建立必要的吞吐量来识别来自任何物种的罕见高亲和力抗体，使其成为开发治疗性单克隆抗体的有力方法。基于这些结果和我们目前的能力，我们将在未来12至18个月内为建立一家新的UBC初创公司筹集风险基金，该公司在单克隆抗体治疗的高增长领域拥有“一流”的技术。

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.