SCREENING COMPOUND LIBRARIES USING AN OPTICAL FIBER ARRAY DEVICE CAPABLE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY PERFORMING MULTIPLE FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS

摘要

The invention relates to a method of generating human monoclonal antibodies suitable as therapeutic candidates from a pool of human peripheral blood lymphocytes extracted from a number of individuals who have all been exposed to the same disease antigen. Peripheral blood lymphocytes extracted from said individuals are immortalized, and a high throughput functional screening assay of the immortalized lymphocytes against target cells associated with or affected by the disease is peformed, in which the target cells are coated onto microbeads and placed in wells formed in one of the ends of a bundle of optical fibers, and wherein changes to the target cells resulting from the assay can be optically detected at the opposite end of the bundle. The immortalized lymphocytes producing human antibodies having specific, desired effects on the target cells, as determined by the assay are selected, grown, and the antibodies are further characterized, in order to select therapeutic candidate antibodies. Also described is a method of screening antibodies against peptide libraries, where the peptides represent or encompass known disease epitopes.