How a Single Protein Tag Provides a Platform for Key Processes in Antibody Production

The identification and production of monoclonal antibodies is important for investigating immune responses and developing therapies. The entire process involves many steps including antigen expression, immunizing host species, isolating antigen-specific B cells as well as clone screening for detecting high affinity antibodies. A protein tag can provide options to centralize various steps onto one platform, making the entire process more time- and cost-effective.

IBA Lifesciences’s Strep-tag® system — a protein tag system based on the interaction between a synthetic peptide and specially engineered streptavidin proteins — offers multiple choices of interaction partners from micromolar to picomolar affinity. As a result of the differences in binding strength among the possible tag-ligand combinations, this system has become a universal tool for isolation of proteins, cells and exosomes. The tag not only helps to yield highly pure proteins, but also provides the option to detect a specific protein of interest via ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) or western blot.

Due to the binding to high affinity Strep-Tactin®XT (an engineered streptavidin) in the picomolar range, even biosensor applications such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) or bio-layer interferometry (BLI) are possible. In addition, incubating the Strep-tagged protein with another engineered streptavidin conjugate generates reagents suitable for cell staining and isolation. This highlights the possibilities that this technology offers beyond protein research.

In practice, this protein tag technology can support the following steps in antibody production:

• Protein expression: Various vectors optimized for different hosts
• Protein purification: Highly pure Strep-tagged antigen of interest due to the specific interaction with the engineered streptavidin
• Immunization: Sufficient yield of pure Strep-tagged antigen
• Antigen-specific B cell isolation: Strep-tagged antigen combined with fluorescent engineered streptavidin conjugates for cell staining and sorting
  • • To find antigen-specific B cells after vaccination studies
    • To screen protective neutralizing antibodies from survivors

• Clone screening: Affinity measurements of produced antibodies via biosensor applications (SPR or BLI)

Join this webinar to learn how the streptavidin protein tag system not only enables protein purification, but also further analyses such as affinity measurements, ELISA, western blot as well as staining and isolating cells, making it a useful tool for complex processes such as antibody screening and production.

Speaker

Fabian Mohr, Vice President Research & Development, IBA Lifesciences

Fabian Mohr received his master’s degree in biology from the Technical Univ. of Munich. During his PhD thesis he worked on the isolation of minimally manipulated regulatory T cells for adoptive T cell therapy. In 2019, Fabian Mohr joined IBA Lifesciences. He currently works as Vice President R&D and is responsible for product & technology innovation.

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