Research published in Science Advances demonstrates highly efficient droplet-based microfluidic platform combined with lentivirus transduction system can enable functional screening of millions of antibodies to identify hits with desired functionalities
HONG KONG – Jun 11, 2021 – HiFiBiO Therapeutics, a multinational biotechnology company with unique expertise in immune modulation and single-cell science, today announced a publication in Science Advances with its collaborators at Nankai University, ShanghaiTech University, and Jiao Tong University about the development of a high-throughput droplet-based approach to identify novel antibodies with functional readouts beyond simple binding. Innovative therapeutics such as bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) antibodies and agonist antibodies against costimulatory receptors can reach their full potential through such functional screening.
This approach improves upon conventional screening by allowing for the analysis and screening of functional antibodies at the single-cell level with unprecedented throughput, allowing for more diverse candidates and successful hits. To demonstrate the technical capabilities of the platform, researchers successfully identified functional antibodies for CD40 agonism with low frequency (<0.02%) in two rounds of screening. Additionally, the versatility of the system was shown by combining an anti-Her2 x anti-CD3 BiTE antibody library with functional screening, enabling efficient identification of active anti-Her2 x anti-CD3 BiTE antibodies.
“Our single-cell microfluidic platform’s robustness and versatility has enabled the efficient and unbiased discovery of active antibodies with markedly increased throughput and accuracy,” said Bingqing Shen, PhD, Director, Antibody Discovery of HiFiBiO Therapeutics. “We look forward to further leveraging our technology towards identification of functional antibodies for agonist and bispecific antibodies to ensure a sustainable pipeline of next generation novel immunotherapies.”
“This technology addresses two main bottlenecks plaguing conventional screening methods for novel immunotherapies, namely, candidate functionality and diversity in a high throughput manner,” said Professor Zhang, “Functional droplet-based screening enables direct linking of antibody discovery to functional outcomes which could optimize screening efforts significantly and accelerate the antibody drug discovery process. I can envision that the platform can be applied to screening of other types of molecules such as cytokines and to high-throughput analysis of cell-cell interactions. For example, dendritic cells expressing a library of neoantigens are co-encapsulated with tumor-infiltrating T cells to map the pairs of cognate antigens and T cell receptors (TCRs).”
To read the full publication, please visit here.
About HiFiBiO Therapeutics
HiFiBiO Therapeutics is transforming the field of immunotherapy by combining proprietary single-cell profiling technologies with advanced data intelligence and deep knowledge of immune system biology. This approach enables the development of novel antibody therapies that are paired with biomarkers to predict patient response. HiFiBiO Therapeutics is working actively to address unmet medical needs around the world through its own innovative pipeline programs and open-innovation partnerships with world-renowned industrial and academic leaders. The company’s global footprint features cutting-edge laboratories on three continents, in Cambridge, Mass., Paris, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong. To learn more, please visit www.hifibio.com.