Polyclonal Antibody Sequencing

Polyclonal antibodies are widely used reagents across research and diagnostics. They are generated by immunizing animals with an immunogen and harvesting the animals’ blood to obtain immunoreactive serum. While polyclonal antibodies offer a range of advantages such as excellent performance across different methods, they suffer from high batch-to-batch variability and require the continued use of animals for their production.

Turning a polyclonal antibody into an infinitely reproducible recombinant antibody has been described as the Holy Grail of reagent antibody technology with far-reaching potential. Now, advances in antibody protein sequencing technology have made it possible to sequence a polyclonal antibody protein sample and obtain highly functional recombinant monoclonal antibodies from the sequence.

We partnered with Rapid Novor to sequence and express monoclonal antibodies from a polyclonal goat antibody sample. Download our research poster to learn more.

Absolute Antibody has partnered with leading industry innovators, including Rapid Novor and Abterra Bio, to enable the production of animal-free polyclonal reagents that are both reproducible and in unlimited supply. Our partners have pioneered the cutting-edge sequencing technology, while Absolute Antibody provides the antibody expression expertise to recombinantly produce monoclonal antibodies from the sequences. We also offer confirmation of binding compared to the original polyclonal antibody, as well as the expression of multiple clones to create an antibody mixture.

To learn more about our approach, download our research poster reporting the de novo sequencing of monoclonal antibodies from a polyclonal goat antibody sample by mass spectrometry, followed by recombinant expression and testing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a successful conversion of a goat polyclonal to a monoclonal using just antibody protein as a template.

We believe that with continual validation, polyclonal antibody sequencing will have a profound impact on the research reagents and diagnostics industry. It also shows great potential for the development of therapeutics from existing polyclonal antibodies. In addition to guaranteeing long-term reproducibility, sequencing a polyclonal antibody enables researchers to extend the usefulness of their original antibody through engineering. Our antibody engineering services allow for a wealth of possibilities, including species and isotype switching, or the creation of novel formats such as high avidity fragments or multispecific antibodies.

If you have a polyclonal antibody you would like to immortalize into a precisely defined and reproducible reagent, please contact us to learn more about our polyclonal antibody sequencing service. The service is ideal for immortalizing challenging immunizations and researchers interested in pushing the boundaries of recombinant antibody technology.