Diverse Antibody Libraries
Advanced library technology allows for the fastest, most diverse hit identification and eliminates the use of animals and immunizations. Our antibody discovery platform rapidly delivers fully human antibody hits right out of the gate, providing superior affinity, cross-species coverage, and improved drug-like characteristics – all royalty-free. Let us guide you to the clinic with the greatest chance of success using one of our phage-based antibody libraries.
Our scFv discovery services utilize fully human, highly diverse antibody phage display libraries built on our proprietary bioinformatic analysis of the human immune repertoire. The libraries are engineered for developability and provide unprecedented speed for antibody hit identification. The scFv hits from these libraries can be quickly engineered into IgG, CAR-T, bispecific, and ADC antibody therapeutics against any target.
Our antibody services and VHH (single-domain antibody) libraries are ideal for nanobody discovery. Access three of the world’s largest VHH libraries for discovering antibodies against any target for use as therapeutics, reagents, and diagnostics.
Our Phage & CIS Display™ Platform
Let us leverage phage display and the cell-free platform CIS Display™ to accelerate your antibody discovery. The process takes as few as six weeks eight weeks and includes the following steps:
- Robust antigen QC – we verify antigen proteins and cell lines. Our team can also create the antigens or help with sourcing if needed.
- Panning – customized to meet specified programe requirements such as providing high affinity for the client’s target and controlling for cross-reactivity and selectivity based on pH, conformation, or active state, etc.
- Screening – we confirm binding, clone sequence, and cell binding as required.
- Optional reformatting, expression, kinetics, and antibody characterization – to advance your antibody discovery and development process.
Zero to Antibody Hero: Laying the Groundwork for Preclinical Success
Are you doing everything you can to de-risk your antibody candidates? What does it take to go to preclinical development with a high degree of confidence? View this webinar to follow the journey of an antibody ‘candidate hero’ as it progresses through the early discovery gauntlet.
Watch the Webinar
Advantages of using our display antibody services for your therapeutic program include:
- Proven library performance. Our libraries were developed with antibody expertise. The libraries have a >95% success rate in delivering binders to targets, have been validated in a variety of peer-reviewed journal articles, and have completed 100+ antibody discovery programs, including candidates currently in clinical trials.
- Diversity. The libraries contain up to 10,000 billion, or 1013, clones, resulting in a diverse panel of hits with a range of affinities against every target. We have produced hits to even the most challenging targets, including GPCRs, ion channels, peptide-MHC complexes, anti-idiotypics, and biepitopic antibodies. Delivered leads are perfect for a range of formats, including IgGs, CAR-Ts, bispecifics, ADCs, and nanobody applications.
- Developability. Our libraries utilize drug-ready, human or humanized framework scaffolds and naturally observed CDR patterns with rationally controlled frequencies. Delivered clones therefore have a reduced risk of failure, providing enhanced thermostability, lowered immunogenicity, and depleted liabilities.
- Speed. Select from a panel of hits in as few as six to eight weeks – significantly faster than other antibody discovery approaches, including hybridomas, transgenic, and traditional phage display.
- Downstream integration. Charles River has the infrastructure and expertise to power your innovations from hit identification to translational success. Our end-to-end antibody solutions ensure you build momentum as you move to antibody engineering and optimization, antibody characterization, and custom antibody development.
- Flexibility and licensing options. Our antibody programs are tailored to meet individual client needs, from a singular library screen to a full end-to-end antibody discovery solution. All programs are royalty-free, but you can opt for varying levels of clone exclusivity. We also offer licensing options to enable clients to use our industry-leading libraries in their own labs.
End-To-End Platform for Antibody Discovery
Our offering in phage display antibody discovery goes beyond just antibody candidate identification. Charles River strives to be the only partner you need on your route to IND. Explore everything we have to offer in the antibody modality from discovery through development and manufacturing, and learn more about the integrated target-to-clinic portfolio:
- Antibody optimization and engineering
- Antibody lead characterization and functionality assessments
- In vitro and in vivo efficacy and safety evaluation of your lead candidates
- CMC development and manufacturing scale-up
- Safety pharmacology
- Biologic testing and manufacturing solutions
- Workflows to support cell or gene therapy applications
- Microbial Solutions
Contact an Antibody Discovery Specialist
WHITE PAPER - Antibodies: The Breakthrough Past, Blockbuster Present, and Cutting-Edge Future
This is an essential read for any company looking to build a biologics pipeline and seeking a deeper understanding of this advanced modality and how it is transforming the industry.
Learn More
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About CIS & Phage Display Antibody Discovery
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What does the antibody discovery process look like at Charles River?
- Several of our phage display antibody discovery platform libraries are designed to deliver hits within eight weeks for most targets. After meeting with our antibody experts to scope out your unique, tailored program for antibody discovery and/or optimization, you will have a dedicated project manager supporting your project every step of the way.
- An overview of the standard antibody discovery process:
- 2-3 weeks : Panning in 6 parallel conditions to maximize specificity
- 2-4 weeks : Screening + NGS unique hit identification confirming binding
- 2 weeks : High-throughput VHH Production for downstream testing
- 4-6 weeks : Lead Characterization to finalize a lead panel of ideal hits
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Why use phage display platforms for antibody libraries?
- Antibody engineering advances have allowed for the fastest, most diverse, and optimized discovery. When compared with mouse immunization, our phage display antibody platform libraries enable rapid scFv and VHH discovery.
- Phage display provides a rapid method of antibody discovery that eliminates the use of animals and immunizations to generate the antibody candidates, saving our clients time and money in the discovery process and demonstrating Charles River’s commitment to the 3Rs.
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Why is specificity important in antibody discovery?
Non-specific binding can lead to unintended therapeutic consequences, and negatively impact the PK and toxicity profiles of your candidate. The risk of dangerous or problematic off-target effects is particularly problematic for CAR-T and pMHC-targeting antibodies. The antibody library screening technology addresses specificity by:
- Incorporating an immense library with up-front deselection against other off-target molecules
- Building our scFv library from fully human complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) that have already been pre-filtered by the human body
- Designing our VHH libraries from a validated scaffold with conservative humanisation and naturally occurring sequence patterns, to maintain the excellent solubility profile of nanobodies. Using high-throughput sequencing of hundreds of millions of antibody reads from multiple panning programs, ensuring antibodies against a given target have not enriched against any other target
Learn more about specificity in this Nature article.
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Can the Charles River antibody discovery support challenging target discovery?
Yes, our programs have demonstrated success in challenging target classes such as:
- GPCRs
- Ion Channels
- pMHC complexes
- anti-HIV bnAbs, mouse/human cross-reactive epitopes
- anti-idiotypics
- bi- and tri-specifics
Leads are perfect for IgGs, CAR-Ts, bi-specifics, ADCs, and nanobody applications.
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How do the Charles River phage display antibody platform libraries avoid immunogenicity liabilities?
Immunogenicity doesn’t manifest itself until human trials. Liabilities can surface at this late stage and the therapeutic can be rendered inactive and even cause negative health outcomes in recipients. The phage display antibody libraries at Charles River address immunogenicity up front by using antibodies that look entirely human by design. This includes antibodies with no mutations in the framework. The phage display antibody platform libraries include only frameworks with dominant alleles found in all human populations in addition to CDR diversity that contains only the variations that the human body can produce.
