"Specific Antibodies Made in Test Tube Without Animal Cells"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Specific Antibodies Made in Test Tube Without Animal Cells"

New York Times (12/17/91), P. C3
Waite, Teresa L.

Abstract: Scientists have discovered a way to make specific human antibodies without using cells from immunized animals. According to the researchers, the discovery marks a substantial advance in attempts to design more effective means to call on immune responses to fend off disease. The report is published in the current issue of The Journal of Molecular Biology, and was devised by a group of six scientists at the Medical Research Council's Center for Protein Engineering and Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Previously, scientists have been extracting antibodies from animals, usually mice, that could be exposed to disease-causing organisms. The report states that the Cambridge scientists isolated the genetic material that codes for antibodies from blood samples of two unimmunized people. They duplicated the antibody genes and inserted them into phage, a virus that infects bacteria cells. The scientists found that only the phage which bound to antigens remained after it was coated on a test tube and the phage was introduced.

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