Half an antibody: better than one?Half an antibody: Better than one? Researchers at Genex corporation have engineered an unconventional antibody that is structurally simpler than naturally occurring antibodies. Instead of a mirror-image pairing of two light and two heavy chains, the new formulation has just the "business ends" of one light and one heavy chain. The scientists stabilized the molecule by inserting a gene for a protein link between the chains, producing one continuous proten. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. researcher Robert Bird Robert Bird may refer to:
Once the technology matures, Bird says, it may hold some advantages over monoclonal antibodies This is a list of monoclonal antibodies, antibodies which are clones of a single parent cell. When used as medications, the generic names end in -mab (see "Nomenclature of monoclonal antibodies"). (MABs). Production of these smaller units, by bacterial fermentation fermentation, process by which the living cell is able to obtain energy through the breakdown of glucose and other simple sugar molecules without requiring oxygen. Fermentation is achieved by somewhat different chemical sequences in different species of organisms. , should be much cheaper than the cell culture used for MABs, according to Bird, and because the new antibodies have just one chain, they should be less prone than MABs to be knocked off affinity columns during protein separations. The new antibody may also prove less problematic in long-term immunotherapy, Bird says, because it would present a smaller target for the host's immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. . |
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