Construction of a system to attain affinity maturation of anti-membrane protein antibodies

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K19007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Chemical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Kawahara Masahiro 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 准教授 (50345097)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: シグナル伝達 / 抗体 / 膜蛋白質 / スクリーニング / 親和性成熟

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Membrane proteins are important targets in medicine. Thus, it is necessary to develop a system to obtain antibodies with high specificity and high affinity against membrane proteins in rapid, easy, and reliable ways. In this study we developed a system to rapidly and easily select specific antibodies against a target membrane protein antigen that is displayed on the mammalian cell surface. This system also allowed easy acquisition of antibodies with higher affinity against a target antigen.

Free Research Field

細胞工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、既往の抗膜蛋白質抗体選択法の問題点を克服した上で、抗体の親和性成熟を合理的に達成可能なユニークな系の開発に成功しており、学術的に意義深い。本研究の手法を用いて、種々の病態関連膜蛋白質に対する抗体が将来的に取得できれば、抗体医薬品としての臨床応用も含めた大きな社会的波及成果が期待できる。