Compartmentalized assays of bispecific and multispecific biologics

Abstract

Methods and systems for performing assays in compartmentalized nano-volumes to screen for functional bispecific or multispecific biologics, including: providing a plurality of at least two distinct types of cells, wherein two or more first-type cells are engineered to express substantially a single genetic-variant per cell for a bispecific or multispecific biologic in a secreted form, wherein two or more second-type cells are selected or engineered to produce a positive reporter molecule signal that is triggered by a functional variant of the said biologic expressed by a first-type cell; providing a plurality of compartmentalized nano-volumes, wherein two or more nano-volumes are each provided with substantially one first-type cell, and one or more second-type cell(s); incubating the said nano-volumes over a period of time to allow the expression and secretion of the said biologics inside the said nano-volumes; collecting data representing the positive reporter molecule signal triggered by secreted biologics inside the said nano-volumes, and recovering cells from the nano-volumes with the positive reporter molecule signal and extracting the genetic information representing respective functional variants of the biologics.