Fusion Antibodies Limited

Darragh MacCann

Christopher Scott

Richard John Buick

Hugh Morgan

James McClory

Natasha Campbell

Leona McGirr

Anthony O'Kane

This disclosure relates to methods of generating antibody libraries, antibody libraries produced using such methods, and variant antibodies. Presently, methods of improving antibody binding (affinity maturation assays) require the screening of vast libraries of antibody variants (often >10) to identify a small fraction of variants with improved characteristics. The present invention involves taking the nucleotide sequence of the framework and complementarity determining region of a target antibody and identifying motifs which would be recognised by deamination somatic hypermutation enzymes. A small library of variants is then created which incorporate one or more of these mutations. It was found that a relatively high proportion of the variants have an increased affinity. The technique of the present invention was demonstrated on the trastuzumab and Cathepsin S antibodies, and the variants produced are also claimed.

Antibody library and method

Growing community of inventors

Belfast Antrim, United Kingdom

Darragh MacCann