Antibody Engineering
There are various approaches to creating new
antibody therapeutics. Generally, you start with a
mAb that had already proven effective at targeting
and binding a protein of interest, and work with it as
a starting point to improve its stability and affinity to
make it a more effective therapeutic.
Optimizing this parent molecule with random
mutations, rationally-designed mutations, or
mutations directed from computer models improves
the developability of your therapeutic mAb. However,
even a single point mutation offers the potential for
a BIG impact on your candidate's stability — both for
the better, and for the worse.
It's critical to check what impact protein
engineering has on your candidate molecule's
stability. With high-resolution nanoDSF data, it
becomes clear how just a few point mutations have
an impact on T
m
values — increasing or decreasing
stability by a few degrees.
