Advancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery With Multiplexed Screening

Antibody-based therapeutics are the fastest growing and most successful therapeutic modality for treating diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders and infectious disease. It is predicted that by the year 2020 there will be 70 therapeutic antibodies on the market, generating revenue of $125 billion. The success of this class of drugs stems from innovative technical advances in antibody engineering and development, including display screening technologies, bispecific antibodies, and antibody drug conjugates. These technical innovations, combined with significant scientific advancements toward our understanding of the complex molecular mechanisms underlying human disease, present new opportunities for improving human health with antibody therapeutics.

The continued advancement in this field is dependent on the successful discovery and development of novel therapeutic antibody candidates. These efforts are being driven by scientists in discovery labs from pharma, biotech and academics, who need powerful tools that can deliver rapid, multifactorial results to fully understand the ability of candidate antibodies to interrupt the cellular and molecular processes leading to disease states. In this paper, we describe how the iQue Screener, the fastest suspension based high throughput screening system available, is used to perform multiplexed screens for antibody binding to either cell surface or to circulating target antigens. We will also discuss the use of the same platform to carry out high content assays to evaluate the effects of lead candidates in multiplexed cell based and secreted protein assays.