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Monoclonal Antibodies
Properties and Production

Description of Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) come from a clone of plasma cells, every cell producing identical antibody molecules to every other cell. The advantage of using a monoclonal antibody is that you know exactly what antigen (epitope) it binds. You do not have to worry about the presence of other antibodies that might interfere with your assay by binding to somethiong other than your antigen. In general, if you use a mAb your antigen does not have to be pure.

Uses for monoclobal antibodies

Detecting and quantifying antibodies or antigens

• Dot Blots
• ELISA
• Western Blots
• ELISPOT

Detecting and quantifying cell-surface markers or internal proteins

• Flow cytometry

Diagnosing a microbial cause of infection

• ELISA
• Fluorescent antibody binding

What you need to make a mAb

• Purified antigen
• Mice to immunize.
• Mouse myeloma (plasma cell tumor), not producing antibody
• Tissue culture equiplent and supplies

How mAb are produced

Additional comments

Useful web sites

Lecture on Antigen-antibody interactions with good graphics: http://webmed.unipv.it/immunology/agabint.html

Johns Hopkins site http://www.hopkins-arthritis.som.jhmi.edu/edu/mono_anti.html

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