Leveraging The Immunological Diversity Of The Pentamice® Platform For Covid-19 Antibody Discovery

By Margaret Wong Ho, General Manager and Site Head and Brian Zabel, Senior Director, Curia

Hybridoma technology, a staple in antibody discovery, often falls short due to its reliance on a single inbred mouse strain for immunization, resulting in limited diversity and antibody titers. Introducing an innovative solution, our white paper unveils the PentaMice platform—a collection of five wildtype mouse strains bred in-house, boasting increased MHC class II diversity. Leveraging this platform, Curia pioneers COVID-19 antibody discovery with enhanced efficacy.

While traditional hybridoma approaches remain unchanged since Köhler and Milstein's groundbreaking invention, they rely on immunizing animals with target antigens, isolating B cells, and fusing them to immortal myelomas. However, antibody diversity and plasma titers, crucial for successful discovery, are hindered by the restricted MHC II haplotypes in conventional approaches.

By contrast, the PentaMice platform offers nine MHC II haplotypes, significantly amplifying antibody diversity and titers, thereby revolutionizing hybridoma-based antibody discovery.

Explore our white paper for insights into the transformative potential of the PentaMice platform in COVID-19 therapeutic discovery, including the identification of neutralizing antibodies.