When we undertake an antibody discovery campaign for you, our goal is to generate as many different target-specific antibodies fulfilling your requirements as possible.

Using three powerful coordinating technologies, we first carry out selections from our Generation 3 phage display libraries to obtain an initial pool of antibody leads with maximum diversity. We then use yeast display to narrow this down to a diverse, high affinity fully binding population, reflecting requirements for cross-reactivity, ligand antagonism or additional specificity needs. Finally, we evaluate selection outputs with next generation sequencing and AbXtract, Specifica’s NGS analysis software.

Specifica has adapted the Generation 3 library platform to affinity mature antibodies from any source. The process involves the initial creation of phase 1 libraries based on the antibody to be matured in which HCDR1/2, LCDR1/2, LCDR3, and HCDR3 if needed, are replaced with scaffold-matching CDRs from the Generation 3 platform. This is followed by yeast display, with the best outputs after sorting for improved affinity combined in a phase 2 library.

As sequence liabilities are purged from the CDRs used, developability improvement occurs simultaneously with affinity maturation, which ranges from 10-200 fold over the starting antibody affinity.